Start of operations in Italy.

The setting up of Newsprint Italia s.r.l. is complete and operations will start in April – with a target date of April 15th as our first day.

Starting with a site in Rome, Newsprint Italia is a JV with IPS of Germany – a major national German distributor – who earlier in 2012 bought out Messaggerie Internazionali, the leading newspaper, magazine and book importer and distributor in Italy.

Malcolm Miller joint MD of the new Italian operation said ‘we are delighted and looking forward to the start of this venture after months of preparations by our teams. From our location on the Rome ring road, the centre of the city can be reached within 15 minutes enabling us to serve the key selling points with the local and national Italian press very quickly following production. Our service will enable our Publisher customers to reach their readers very early each morning on day of publication, reduce their logistics costs and achieve an overall improved service. Other major cities to the north and south of Rome will also be serviced from this site. The bulk of newspapers printed will be the national German press that has a large presence in Italy together with a wide range of leading International titles from other European and further afield counties to follow as we ramp up production. Obviously the Vatican attracts a wide range of nationalities and our technology will enable to satisfy a whole new range of newspapers previously commercially impossible to have available on the market’.

Concluding he added ‘I am proud that we as a Maltese company and team have managed to get into the Italian market and provide this unique service. This is our 4th overseas operation – all the production IT and workflow will be carried out in Malta, expanding the use of our services here at our Luqa head office, growing the support hub around our expanding overseas operations’.

A second Italian and a further European site will be announced in the coming weeks.