Kodak Limited and Guiton Group Limited have announced the establishment of KP Services (Jersey) Limited, a collaboration between Kodak and Guiton Group Limited, which also owns the Jersey Evening Post.

KP Services (Jersey) Ltd will print the Jersey Evening Post as well as the UK national newspapers for distribution in Jersey and Guernsey.  Currently these newspapers are printed in the UK and flown to both islands on a daily basis.  It is estimated that KP Services (Jersey) Limited will print approximately 35,000 newspapers in total each day, made up from the circulation required for each edition.

Jack Knadjian, Managing Director for KP Services (Jersey) Limited, said; “ In today’s printing environment, businesses need to invest in technologies that complement long-established production methods, yet also enable them to drive newspaper printing into the future.  Kodak has pioneered inkjet printing for newspapers and is ready to show the world the next generation of inkjet presses with the speed and quality provided by KODAK Stream Inkjet Technology. It would not have been possible to print so many titles with such a diversity of print runs (less than 300 to more than 17,000) and some with very high page counts using offset technology. Through KP Services (Jersey) Limited, we will now be able to demonstrate the value of KODAK PROSPER 6000 Presses to our customers around the world.”

The new service will bring a number of benefits to Jersey and Guernsey and in particular will overcome the current challenges of unreliable plane delivery by avoiding weather delays.  A new bespoke freight service will now run daily between the islands to deliver the papers to Guernsey.

Jersey’s Minister for Economic Development, Senator Lyndon Farnham, commented; “This is a welcome investment into the Jersey economy by such a prestigious global company. The partnership between Kodak and the Guiton Group will see the very latest digital printing technology coming to the island, new jobs created and new skills being learnt.  The Jersey operation will be a worldwide showcase for the digital printing of newspapers and we are delighted to see such innovation and invesment brought to the island.”

The company will install two KODAK PROSPER 6000P Presses and four of the newly-launched Hunkeler Combi-Solution Newspaper finishing lines. The PROSPER 6000 Presses are powered by an advanced Intelligent Print System (IPS) that continuously monitors, evaluates and adjusts operations to ensure exceptional quality output. With the improved IPS, the PROSPER 6000 Presses can monitor and instantly correct color registration, delivering enhanced registration performance.

The presses print at speeds of up to 1,000 feet, or 300 meters, per minute on standard newsprint paper and enable significant savings in logistics and transportation costs for runs of up to 1,500 copies by delivering  close to 3,000 newspapers, with an average of 48 pages, every hour.

Paul Carter, Managing Director, Guiton Publishing and the Jersey Evening Post added; “After 125 years of consistently printing our own titles, it is fair to say that any third-party solution needed to be technologically superior for us to consider moving from self-sufficiency to this type of partnership.  We’ve been watching digital development for over a decade and always held back due to the speed and reliability issues that this technology struggled with previously.  We are confident that adding the KODAK PROSPER 6000 Presses, combined with the Hunkeler finishing equipment and our own expertise in publishing and distribution, makes this the right time to move forward. In the year when we celebrate our 125th anniversary, it is satisfying to invest in future-proofing our business in this way.”

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