Goss Consolidates in U.S., Ships to Sri Lanka

By: Jim Rosenberg Goss International has announced consolidation of "certain administrative and operational ... activities" now located in its Bolingbrook, Ill., headquarters into former Heidelberg facilities in Dover and Durham, N.H.

The press maker said the move is part of its continuing integration of the web offset business operations it acquired from Heidelberger Druckmashinen AG.

The change is expected to eliminate approximately 100 positions in the United States over the next few months, with affected employees offered severance and outplacement benefits. Goss will maintain sales, engineering, technical support, and administrative functions in Bolingbrook, with no change to customer contacts and support.

The United States is home to almost a third of Goss International's 4,300 employees worldwide.

On the other side of the world, Express Newspapers (Ceylon) Ltd. looks to its past preference for Goss presses to equip for its future on its 5th anniversary.

Slated for installation this month in Colombo, Sri Lanka, a new Community press "was unloaded just before the wave tragedy and fortunately was not delayed or impacted in any way," Sales Manager Saku Satkunaratnam wrote in a recent e-mail. "The customer is located in ... the capital city, which itself was spared the tsunami wave tragedy. They are all OK and not directly affected," he wrote.

The Community has two four-high towers, two mono units with reelstands and two freestanding reelstands. It is Express Newspapers' third Community, but the first of its presses to include four-high towers. The 35,000-cph press is capable of printing 16 pages in one pass, half of them in color.

"The inclusion of two four-high towers in our new press configuration will allow us to have the benefits of full color production and pagination," Express Newspapers Managing Director Kumar Nadesan said in a statement. "This will help us attain the high quality standards that the Sri Lankan newspaper market is demanding today," he continued, adding that the press' expandability also important in view of "plans to increase the number of publications in the next two years."

The company publishes newspapers for the Tamil-speaking population, including the daily Virakesari (the island nation's oldest Tamil publication), Virakesari Illustrated Weekly, and the Mithran and Metro News weeklies.

Satkunaratnam wrote that Express Newspapers sees the expansion project as "an indication that rebuilding of the country and infrastructure must carry on despite the obstacles and keep the populace informed."