A 60m, four-press plant at Fort Dunlop, Birmingham, which will replace the current three-press site in the city and a two-press site in Coventry, will begin operations in the fourth quarter of the year.

Following a 7.5m investment in inserting kit, the Fort Dunlop plant is planned as a fourth print site for the group's national titles, alongside Mirror Colour Print in Watford and Oldham and Saltire Press in Cardonald, Glasgow.

In her interim report, Trinity Mirror group chief executive Sly Bailey said that this would "reduce future capital costs for the nationals print sites and improve time to market."

On Teesside, a 14.4m full-colour site will begin printing the new tabloid Evening Gazette in the autumn. Both Birmingham and Teesside sites will be able to print 128pp back-to-back colour.

The group's two-press site in Chester will cease production in January 2005. This follows the closure of a single-press site in Huddersfield in May.

In a further move, management has been consolidated for the group's two print sites in Scotland, at Cardonald and Blantyre.

By the end of the review, the group will run 37 presses at nine print sites compared to 40 presses at 11 sites currently.

The progress update on the print review, conducted by group manufacturing director Rupert Middleton, was published with the interim results this week.

Middleton was appointed to the new role in March with the objective of consolidating management of the group's print sites, which had previously been run on a local basis, and reducing print costs.

The report said that the previous structure "contributed to a wide range in operating efficiencies with some utilisation levels as low as 25%".

The results also showed that operating profits for the group are up 20.6% year-on-year to 120.2m.

Story by Josh Brooks