Printer to build plant in Springfield

|tab|

Bolivar-based Community Publishers Inc. of Missouri is building a printing facility in the Partnership Industrial Center, according to Dave Berry, vice president and publisher with CPI Missouri.|ret||ret||tab|

CPI Missouri owns community newspapers in seven southwest Missouri towns: Bolivar, Buffalo, Marshfield, Nixa, Ozark, Rogersville/Fordland and Stockton. The company also operates two printing companies, Marshfield Community Printers and Missouri Color Web in Bolivar.|ret||ret||tab|

Berry said the new facility will comprise more than 25,000 square feet, and it will more than double the printing capacity of the two separate facilities combined. Missouri Color Web has seven printing units and Marshfield Community Printers has six units.|ret||ret||tab|

The new facility, which will operate as Missouri Color Web, will have 14 printing units. |ret||ret||tab|

Both the Marshfield and Bolivar printing operations will be sold, and press and mailroom crews from Marshfield and Bolivar printers will work in the new facility once it's completed, and additional staff also will be hired.|ret||ret||tab|

"It's going to be bigger, better and be quite an investment for our company, a step forward. We'll be able to handle all of the printing out of that central hub for all of our publications," Berry said.|ret||ret||tab|

He added that the new facility will put the company closer to its existing commercial printing clients, and the company hopes to expand its commercial printing business.|ret||ret||tab|

In fact, he said, the company wouldn't mind if the new location became a round-the-clock commercial printer for newspapers, trade publications and anything else that's suitable for cold-set web printing.|ret||ret||tab|

"We could've continued to exist in our present (printing) situations as newspapers. We could've limped along with what we had. But the commercial printing opportunities are very much a main impetus for (doing) this," Berry said.|ret||ret||tab|

The total cost of the new facility is "pushing the $5 million mark," Berry said. The press and related equipment cost about $3 million.|ret||ret||tab|

Walton Construction is the general contractor for the new Missouri Color Web and Sapp Design Associates Architects PC is the architect. Construction will begin in February, and the building should be ready for delivery of the new press by June 1. Berry said the company plans to hold an open house Sept. 1.|ret||ret||tab|

The ownership of CPI Missouri is nearly synonymous with that of Arkansas-based Community Publishers Inc., which is owned by a group of shareholders that includes Jim Walton, the son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and owner of Arvest Bank.|ret||ret||tab|

[[In-content Ad]]