The Swedish regional newspaper market is in a state of constant change. Pressgrannar AB is the leading newspaper plant for the region around the capital Stockholm – from Uppsala in the north all the way down to Småland and Gotland in the south. The past 15 years have seen a range of local newspapers produced under the company umbrella. In order to ensure reliable production and supply for a region of this size, Pressgrannar relies on Ferag mailroom technology. Pressgrannar has now taken the next step in safeguarding this reliability and also opted to upgrade to the latest PRA Plus control technology.
Pressgrannar AB was established in 2004 through the merger of the printing plants at Norrköpings Tidningar and Östgöta Correspondenten. This was followed by the integration of Gotlands Förenade Tidningstryckerier and the Upsala Nya Tidnings Group. The latest acquisitions include the printing plants at Swepress (Vimmerby), and Sörmlands Media.
Pressgrannar is a wholly owned subsidiary of the NTM Group (Norrköping), which includes freesheets, television stations, radio stations, digital media and distribution companies in addition to morning newspaper subscriptions. Along with Norrköpings Tidningar and Östgöta Correspondenten, the Group titles include Upsala Nya Tidning, Norrbottens Kuriren, Norrländska Socialdemokraten, Västerviks Tidningen, Gotlands Tidningar and Gotlands Allehanda. Printing currently takes place at the plants in Linköping, Uppsala and Visby. Pressgrannar has around 70 permanent staff and generates sales of some 220 million Swedish krona.
Modern, automated mailroom
The main site for print production is in Linköping, which is located optimally from a logistics point of view in the heart of the circulation area for the Pressgrannar titles. The plant employs 35 staff. Production is carried out on a Manroland Regioman 4/1 with two folder deliveries, with a two-shift system in operation six days a week. In 2011, the plant was equipped with modern, highly automated mailroom equipment including Ferag technology that was then just a few years old. At that time, the software was therefore also considered as being suitable on commissioning.
At the heart of the two postpress processing lines are two MSD inserting drums, each with three JetFeeder hoppers and a total of four MultiStack stack turners. Work is carried out completely offline at Pressgrannar in Linköping in order to optimize the individual production steps. To do this, a MultiDisc DiscPool is installed upstream on each of the two production lines.
Following changes in classic newspaper production, Pressgrannar now also handles many semi-commercial orders. To do this, the mailroom is equipped with trimming drums and a StreamFold quarterfolder. This means that the typical Nordic format (400 x 560 mm) can be folded into easy-to-handle products measuring 200 x 280 mm. Peter Ihre, Executive Director at Pressgrannar AB, estimates that semi-commercial orders already take up around one-third of the entire portfolio at the company.
According to Peter Ihre, the mailroom is also the key to success in Linköping at the moment. The company can not only build on the reliability and high net output offered by the Ferag technology, but also on the added value of the additional machines.
Systematic examination of processes
As an even stronger focus on production is planned in Linköping in spring 2020, the availability of the production technology is more important than ever. As a result, Pressgrannar decided some months ago to upgrade its control technology from PRA PC to PRA Plus. In addition to the LineMaster (LIM) line control with new activation of topsheet production and inkjet printing, the old bundle conveyor line control was also upgraded to the current PKT2 standard. The PRA Plus line control unit now installed in Linköping allows for functions such as regionalized inserting, the individual addressing of products via inkjet and programmed bundle production. It is fully compatible with the Internet addressing protocol IPv6 and modern network architectures. PRA Plus runs under the Debian Linux operating system.
Pressgrannar took this opportunity to also examine existing processes in detail together with Ferag and discuss the possibilities offered by the Ferag control technology. In doing so, Peter Ihre and his team are continuing the decades-long trusted cooperation with Ferag. Peter Ihre: “We appreciate the outstanding dedication and know-how that our long-standing partner Ferag provides.”
