In a report in the Australian Financial Review this week, Allely (pictured) declared that he is “optimistic we will retain the ACP work”, despite PBL chief executive Ian Law saying recently that plans to build the facility were going ahead.

“They are very keen to do it, but I’m not sure they will have the financial support to do it,” Allely was quoted as saying. “We haven’t stopped talking to PBL Media about giving them what they want in terms of changes to our printing and distribution arrangements for them.”

PBL announced in October last year that it would build its own facility in Sydney to handle printing and distribution for its ACP magazines business. Some estimates put the cost of building such a facility at around $150 million, with Law declaring that the “new technology available will deliver significant financial and operational benefits to the company when it is fully operational”.

However, many have cast doubt on the project’s viability with PBL reportedly carrying $3.8 billion worth of debt.

Allely’s predecessor Brian Evans also expressed doubt over PBL’s plans in an interview with ProPrint last year, declaring that “there are no guarantees [the new facility] will go ahead.”

“If they go ahead, they’re going to find that printing magazines is very different from printing newspapers, it’s a lot more complicated.”

“I think their views of savings in the industry haven’t been accurate, and time will tell how successful they are.”

PMP currently has a contract to handle ACP’s printing until the new facility is fully operational, with an option on a further two years if it isn’t ready by the scheduled date. PBL originally slated the facility to be up and running by 2011.

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