A 4x1 Commander CL press for French media group Ouest-France will be the eighth maker KBA has installed but the first in this plate format.
Five four-high towers and one mono units will print up to 48 pages (40 in four colour) in up to three sections at up to 84,000cph.
The specification includes a KF 5 jaw folder with ribbon stitcher, and six Pastomat reelstands. Automated pagination change, automatic RollerTronic roller locks, ink feed and ink unit washing systems, automatic colour and cut-off register controls, and semi-automatic plate changing systems cut makeready times, waste and operation and maintenance. ErgoTronic control consoles will include automatic press start-up and run-down moduiles, together with an interface to existing job scheduling and press preset systems. It is planned to go live in Rennes in late 2014.
France’s largest daily newspaper, Ouest-France was founded on 4 August 1944 by Paul Hutin-Desgrées and today has a daily circulation of about 800,000 copies and 50 editions. A Sunday newspaper, Dimanche Ouest-France was launched in 1997.
The publisher focusses on the Brittany, Pays de Loire and Lower Normandy regions.
Shares in Ouest-France have been held by a non-profit organisation, since 1990 to safeguard corporate independence, with a civil law company, SIPA, representing this in an arrangement unique in the newspaper industry.
At the end of 2005 SIPA, which already owned Presse de la Manche, took over the titles Le Courrier de l’Ouest, Presse-Océan and Le Maine Libre, which appear in the Pays de la Loire region. The SIPA-Ouest-France group has a total circulation of about one million copies, including all regional dailies. Another division, Publihebdos publishes 76 weeklies with a circulation of 490,000 copies mainly in western and northern France as well as in the Paris area.
Additionally, consumer and special-interest magazine and online publisher Via Spir Communication – which is controlled by SIPA’s subsidiary, Sofiouest – holds shares in free newspaper 20 Minutes France, in which Schibsted is joint venture partner.