By: E&P Staff Sun-Times Media Group (STMG), which in the past two years has consolidated its printing facilities from five to three, is consolidating again.
The Chicago Sun-Times parent said it "tentatively plans" to close its Fox Valley Publications production facility in suburban Plainfield, Illinois by April 2009. The plant will be put up for sale, it said.
Work performed at the Fox Valley plant will move to STMG's largest production facility on Ashland Avenue in Chicago in a move it estimates will save more than $3 million annually.
The 100,000-square-foot Fox Valley plant prints editions of The Beacon News, The Herald News, The SouthtownStar, the Naperville Sun, other Sun newspapers and various weekly shoppers.
"At the time of the closing, some of the 153 employees located at the Plainfield facility will move to other locations, depending upon job function, and the company anticipates there will be some positions at the Ashland production plant for employees currently performing press work at Fox Valley," STMG said in a statement. "The company said there will be some headcount reductions."
"Sun-Times Media Group continues to look for more efficient ways to run our businesses, particularly in this tough financial and economic environment as part of our previously announced plan to reduce annual costs by $45 million to $55 million over the next nine months," President and CEO Cyrus Freidheim Jr. said in a statement. "We've taken a hard look at our fixed costs such as our printing plants. We have determined that we can efficiently print all of our products at our two remaining facilities, without sacrificing quality or output. These changes will not affect our customers or our products."
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