Broughton Printers Preston: UK December 2015

Brougton Printers was established in 1998 when the site at Fullwood was opened. The site was originally owned by United News and Media after a major expansion in 1997 at a cost of £32 million Broughton Printers was born. Later in 2009 a further £14 million was spent on upgrading the site. In 2011 the site was acquired by Northern and Shell, the parent company of Express Newspapers. They came with £100 million print investment, it seems this never made it to the site in Preston. Maybe then they already had plans to close the site.

Printing The Star, The Express and local evening and weekly newspapers at its peek the workforce was 200 strong and printed over 11million copies a week.

In early 2015 it was announced by Express Newspaers that the contract would not be renewed and signed a five year deal with Johnston Press in Sheffield. The final day of printing was early in July when 91 people lot their jobs. A skeleton crew remained for various reasons some of whom we met on this visit. One of them was kind enough to give us a quick tour and a small insight into how the presses work.

What with global warming and the advancement in technology I can see this being a growing trend in the printing industry. Most of us have access to all the news we need in our pockets.

Big thanks to Scrappy NW who managed to organise a Permission visit to this awesome site.