With Bundaberg – where APN has a new Manugraph-equipped plant – surrounded by water, production of the ‘Fraser Coast Chronicle’ was switched to the hybrid Yandina plant this week.

APN Print general manager for regional operations Gary Osborne says “everyone has jumped in” to do whatever was necessary, and the company had “coped reasonably well”.

APN plant has print sites in some of the worst-affected parts of Queensland, in Mackay, Rockhampton – where water is still rising – and Bundaberg. In addition to the hybrid heatset manroland press at Yandina on the Sunshine Coast, it also has production facilities in Toowoomba and Ballina (NSW).

Osborne says all the plants are currently unaffected by flooding, although Rockhampton had experienced problems with the exceptionally heavy rain, and publishing staff from one Bundaberg site had moved across to the print site for a period because of water.

“Our biggest problem is that we can’t get staff in – including the Bundaberg print manager –  but everyone has jumped in to do whatever was necessary,” he says.

“We’ve moved some jobs around to deal with the logistics of delivering them, and we haven’t missed an issue so far. However, distribution is a real disaster with access to some areas impossible.”