After nearly 32 years at its location on Chisholm Avenue, Great West Newspapers is on the move.
The business will remain in Campbell Business Park, but is upgrading to a multi-million-dollar, state-of-the-art facility opening its doors Monday at 340 Carleton Dr.
Great West Newspapers owns and produces more than 20 community newspapers throughout the province, including the St. Albert Gazette.
“Our head office is here, all of our administration, IT support, all of the production – printing that is – for our newspapers is done in St. Albert,” said Duff Jamison, president and CEO.
He said readers will not experience any interruption to service as a result of the relocation.
“It’s going to be a much more pleasant working environment,” he said. “We’ve invested in equipment that’s going to improve our productivity with a bigger, efficient, cleaner, brighter workspace.”
The plot of land on Carleton Drive was the City of St. Albert’s former organic waste disposal site and was purchased in 2005.
Planning for the new building began shortly afterward, with a group of executives travelling the world to see other printing plants firsthand.
“We’ve been to at least seven or eight different countries in Europe and North America to see what the most modern designs are,” Jamison said.
Construction began in May of 2011 and while most of it has been completed, construction for the printing facility will be ongoing until the spring of 2013.
The Gazette Press, a subsidiary of Great West Newspapers, runs 24/7 to produce the chain’s newspapers as well as various commercial printing projects.
The business was rooted on Perron Street before moving to Campbell Business Park in October of 1980 when executives decided to venture into the printing business.
“It’s print or be printed,” Jamison said. “We decided to print.”
Back then, Great West Newspapers occupied just 8,000 square feet of the Chisholm Avenue building, but over the next three decades, grew to consume roughly 35,000 square feet.
“People have worked inside this building now for a long time. It wasn’t designed for us. We’ve grown over the years inside this building,” Jamison said.
A handful of renovations were completed over the years, but the business needed more space. The new building is more than double the size, totaling roughly 75,000 square feet.
An expansion of this magnitude comes at a time when several media giants are cutting staff and watching their wallets. Despite this, Jamison said the investment for the new building is justified and necessary.
“Community newspapers are far from dying. Community newspapers are very healthy throughout the world,” he said. “Our business has never been healthier. People continue to read printed newspapers, there’s no question about that.”
He said Great West Newspapers will continue to grow its family of newspapers.
As of Monday the Gazette’s new address will be 340 Carleton Dr.
