Innovate or die is the catchcry of NZME's Ellerslie print centre, a 20-year-old production facility confronted by the challenges of operating in a declining market.
The last couple of years have seen schedules tighten as the site absorbed contract work from rival Fairfax Media New Zealand which is waiting to know whether it will be cleared as its partner in a new merger, a New Zealand Commerce Commission decision on which may not come until next March.
Meanwhile, life goes on, with the flagship plant admitted to WAN-Ifra's International Newspaper Color Quality Club for a second term, a runner up in the PANPA print site of the year competition, and among winners in this year's SWUG NZ contest.
Since late 2014, NZME Ellerslie has been printing a range of work for Fairfax, which has its own plant at Petone (Wellington) on the southern tip of the North Island, as well as in Christchurch on the South Island. Principal are the 30,000 circulation daily Waikato Times, 25,000 Sunday News and about 55,000 copies of the national Sunday Star Times, also printed at the other Fairfax sites.
On weekdays, the Waikato Times slips in alongside NZME's flagship New Zealand Herald - a "compact" (tabloid) product these days of between 40-72 pages daily - and group dailies the Bay of Plenty Times and The Northern Advocate. Inserting is a major part of the operation, with preprints and magazines of 20-52 pages - including the glossy Canvas weekend magazine - in the Herald every day, sometimes four in an issue and with commercial inserts, totalling between three and six million copies a week. Four days a week, the plant also prints the 32-pp broadsheet Chinese Herald - the job for which NZME gained INCQC membership - as well as two other Asian titles.
Weekly output across more than 120 runs and about 500 tonnes of newsprint is more than 5.2 million copies, more than a quarter of which are stitched and trimmed. Papers are trucked up to seven hours via a busy distribution network which accounts for more than 14,000 heavy vehicle movements a year, making on-time delivery a priority KPI.
Installed in 1995 as part of a move from letterpress, the Goss HT70 pressline and Ferag mailroom are "pretty much as they were was originally" - except for the early addition of inline stitching - but the way in which the equipment is used has changed enormously: "When the press was installed, we were producing more than 300,000 copies which ran to 80 pages broadsheet," says Wieck.
"These days instead of the high-volume, low colour production the plant was designed for, we're also handling small-pagination low volume jobs and specialty publications, ranging from four-page tabloid and broadsheet sections to 128 tabloids stitched and trimmed live in a single pass."
The double-width pressline includes a total of 12 four-high towers and nine mono units with 22 reelstands, and can be configured to operate as either two or three presses. Three rotary folders are complemented by a 3:2:2 jaw folder with a Motter stitcher, all linked via a matrix switch system to four Ferag ETR-M inserting drums, an SNT-U trimmer, winders and four stack/wrap/strap stations. In prepress, two Agfa Polaris platesetters with Burgess benders produce 55,000 plates per month.
Currently the option of closed-loop colour registration is being looked at as an upgrade to the basic QuadTech system which was originally installed on the press. "This will enable us to be more aggressive in going after shorter-run commercial work, whereas currently we wouldn't bother with anything under about 10,000 copies," Russell Wieck says.
The plant operates three production shifts across six-and-a-half days under an unusual arrangement which sees third-party contract employees working alongside staff on individual and collective agreements. It's a flexible arrangement which has enabled the plant to adjust to changing circumstances, with the workforce tailored to suit the day's production volumes.
More than half of those who work at the site - including most of the press and mailroom employees - work for contractor Inprint, in what Wieck says is a 'win-win' arrangement for all concerned. While the split between direct and contract staff is 50/50 - with about 80 FTEs in each group - contracted staff number about 150, most of whom work part-time. "Over the years we've got to know what suits each of them," says Wieck. "They get the working arrangements they want, and we get the flexibility to adjust to the work which we have to do."
Wieck - who joined APN in Toowoomba in 1977, moving to the New Zealand Herald in 2004 - says the culture is "all about improvement, whether it is quality, waste reduction, timeliness, staff morale, skills or personal growth and the team's focus on lifting the bar at every opportunity.
"We celebrate success and achievement across all departments through a variety of initiatives including monthly achievers awards, site barbecues and staff social events."
Training and the apprenticeship system are actively embraced, with mentoring by a Print NZ-qualified trainer. Other high potential staff are encouraged with career pathways, skills development and personal growth opportunities, with incentives including a place on the eight-day Outward Bound 'navigator' leadership development course.
The site also hosts block release courses held by PrintNZ's Competenz training unit, - "a way we can give back to the industry," says Wieck - which sees trainees from sheetfed and label printing companies in Auckland and beyond making use of facilities including the boardroom. In addition to recognition through dozens of awards and certificates for print quality - including America's WOA and Premier Print, PANPA, SWUG Australia and NZ technical awards, and New Zealand's national Pride in Print awards - the site has been named PrintNZ training company of the year for three of the past five years. The awards confirm the dividends repaid by "taking the (WAN-Ifra INCQC) Quality Club journey".
Out in the community, staff are paid for three days participation in planned activities for local hospices and other registered welfare organisations, with activities including collecting donations and Christmas food packages, and helping in the hospice shop.
A second term in WAN-Ifra's International Color Quality Club is both recognition of achievement and part of the philosophy of continuous improvement.
Having scored a 'fourth time lucky' win in 2014, the Ellerslie print site is among 64 globally to be admitted to WAN-Ifra's 2016-18 International Color Quality Club.
Wieck says the exercise confirms that the site's 20-year-old Goss press is still able to produce world-class quality. "And that comes down to the people who are using it," he says. "It is really about harnessing the passion, training and skills of staff."
Certificates will be handed to new club members in October during the World Publishing Expo in Vienna, with some practitioners presenting case studies.
NZME Ellerslie entered the 10,000-circulation four-section broadsheet Chinese Herald, which it prints four times a week, and was ranked 30 out of 128 global entrants.
Wieck says the process is very intensive and demanding: "You either get accepted or you fail," he says. "Entrants have to print a product on a set date over three consecutive months, with an Ifra 'cuboid' - which effectively records data relevant to the technical element of the submission - contained within each copy."
Successful entrants have to surpass a base score on each monthly assessment, and Ellerslie scored 538.21 out of a possible 540 points collectively. Two random copies are also scrutinised for print quality by judges.
The ten-year INCQC journey embarked upon by the company "significantly lifted quality standards," he says. "As a longstanding newspaper facility, we thought we were pretty good at what we were doing... until having three consecutive attempts knocked back. However, the journey that has unfolded over the past decade has enabled our team to learn so much more about printing.
"We are now striving for a standard of excellence that was well beyond what we thought possible. Our day-to-day quality is now so much higher."
Wieck says the "innovate or die" philosophy is deeply ingrained and covers every aspect, from rebuilding obsolete machine electronics, designing mechanical improvements, and identifying new revenue initiatives for its publishers.
"We recognise we have the opportunity to influence the longevity of the industry by finding new and powerful ways to make newspapers more viable and relevant to both readers and advertisers," he says. "That means great quality, consistent delivery times and fresh print ideas, such as translucent covers, spine folds and fluoro inks."
It's all about keeping customers - and those of NZME's customers - engaged.
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