BUSINESS / NEWS 10 email: news@printmonthly.co.uk Issue 342 - July / August 2023 PrintMonthly printmonthly PrintMonthlyMagazine Paragon suffers serious fire at site Paragon, formerly the Customer Communications division of Paragon Group has suffered a serious fire at its site in Leicester. Starting around 9.30am on June 15th, the fire has affected Paragon’s inbound mail site on Saffron Road, South Wigston in Leicester. Having been called around 9.45am, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service put out a series of tweets as the incident unfolded asking people who live nearby to close windows and doors and avoid the area due to heavy smoke. Speaking to Print Monthly, Jim Hartshorne, chief executive officer of Paragon UK, Ireland and Luxembourg, says: “We are working with the authorities to deal with a fire at our South Wigston (Leicester) facility, which was detected at around 0930 yesterday morning (Thursday 15th June 2023). “All our employees were safely evacuated from the facility and there have been no reported injuries. As per our incident response plan, we have been in communication with all clients that we provide services to from this facility, and we have initiated our business continuity plan to manage the impact. We are also updating our people to keep them informed on the situation.” Saffron Road on which the Paragon site is located was closed whilst fire services tackled the blaze. A total of 11 fire engines from stations across Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire were in attendance as well as two aerial ladder platforms and a water carrier. Speaking from the scene on June 15th, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service station manager Nick Stanborough, said: “We are still at the scene of the fire in South Wigston. Crews are working incredibly hard in difficult conditions to bring the fire under control as quickly as possible.” Due to the efforts of the local services, the fire was scaled down to five appliances and one high reach appliance with a hose made up. With fire fighters remaining at the premises throughout the night, the fire was brought under control and was contained within the Paragon site. A provider of transformational business services, Paragon goes to market through seven key business lines operating across four key regions: the UK, Ireland and Luxembourg; Belgium and the Netherlands; DACHE and CCE; and Western Europe. Paragon Group has a total of 17 sites across the company with the South Wigston site having been under the brand since 2019 when the group acquired the European Global Document Solutions business belonging to RR Donnelley. The fire broke out at Paragon’s Saffron Road site on June 15th at 9.30am Fujifilm Europe opens PEC Fujifilm Europe has officially announced the opening of the Fujifilm Print Experience Centre (PEC) which has been created to bring together technologies and products from the company’s Graphic Communications and Photo Imaging divisions. The company has long been known for its photographic and print offerings which are a large part of the overall FUJIFILM Corporation offering. Throughout the year, the company has announced a number of changes and announcements, including new presses available to the wide-format market. The PEC is a 1,200sq ft design space located at Fujifilm Europe and Fujifilm Deutschland’s premises in Ratingen, Germany. The divisions moved to their new headquarters in May 2022, after a series of construction-related delays. The space will offer training and demonstrations to customers and partners as well as offer visitors the opportunity to evaluate and experiment with varied media. Printing systems at the PEC include the Jet Press 750S, Revoria Press PC1120, Revoria E1 Series, ApeosPro C Series, Imprinting systems, and Acuity Prime. The company has developed the experience centre in order to create integrated experiences between its graphic and photographic offerings Walstead bags print deal Walstead has secured a five-year print deal with News UK which will see it print News UK’s entire portfolio of weekly newspaper supplements for The Saturday Times, The Sunday Times, and Sun on Sunday. The largest commercial printing business in the UK, Walstead employs over 800 people over five manufacturing sites. All titles will be printed at Walstead’s Bicester facility with the transition beginning in April and full production commencing on July 1st, 2023. The contract is the result of a tender process that finished at the end of 2022 and since then, Walstead has been working with News UK on several key workstreams in order to ensure a smooth move from the pre-existing gravure process to Walstead’s heatset web offset platform. Alongside this, Walstead’s Bicester site has also benefitted from substantial investment including the purchase of a Goss M600 cover press with six units and UV in-line varnishing, and a Ferag Unidrum stitching line bringing the total number of high-speed stitching lines at the site to five. Walstead will print News UK’s entire portfolio of weekly newspaper supplements for The Saturday Times, The Sunday Times, and Sun on Sunday By Carys Evans By David Osgar By Carys Evans
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