The IPMG-owned company recently gave ProPrint a behind-the-scenes tour of the heatset web plant, which is the most significant build in this industry since Fairfax established Tullamarine 10 years ago and the biggest heatset project since PMP set up its Moorebank supersite in the mid-90s.
[Read ProPrint's exclusive article here]
The project, years in the making, has overcome a number of challenges.
Originally conceived as a gravure plant, the fall in volumes due to the GFC drove a decision to go with heatset web technology from Manroland. Warwick Farm runs a 96pp Manroland Lithoman in a twin web configuration. When ordered, it was the only press of its kind anywhere in the world.
But this flagship machine was also the reason for one of the project's biggest hurdles, the Manroland insolvency.
However, Hannanprint overcame the GFC and the collapse of its major press supplier – as well as “24 days of consecutive rain” during the building phase – to finish the project within a week of its forecast completion, said managing director Tony Dedda.
[Photos: Go behind the scenes]
Dedda, who is retiring on 1 October to be replaced by Hannanprint chief financial officer Adrian O’Connor, said: "The project was exciting so there was never a hurdle that become insurmountable. You overcame the hurdles."
The 38,000sqm plant includes an innovative control room design built directly over the heart of the plant's four web presses: the 96pp Lithoman, two 48pp Lithomans and a 32pp Rotoman.
"We have the people who live this in the control room, the mezzanine over the pressroom. They can feel the presses. They are part of it. That is important," added Dedda.
The 300-staff plant offers incredible capacity for Hannanprint's stable of blue-chip clients, which includes Pacific Magazines and Fairfax Media.
Dedda said that if all four web presses were running full speed at their optimum web width, the plant could churn out eight million pages per hour.
[Related: Ups & downs of IPMG]
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