June 27th, 2011 - Upali Newspapers of Sri Lanka has ordered a new Community SSC press from Goss International to address advertiser demand for more color pages. Past experience with Goss technology was instrumental in the decision to invest once again through Goss International.

The new four-tower coldset press will be installed into the company's print facility in Homagama, alongside two existing web presses, one of which is also a Goss Community SSC model.

According to Lakshman Perera, director of finance at Upali Newspapers, the demand from advertisers for more color placement opportunities has been steadily rising over recent years, making this an essential investment. "We intend to become the leading publisher of newspapers and periodicals in Sri Lanka and to achieve this aim we have developed a comprehensive plan of strategic and technological investment," Perera explains. "The new press from Goss International is a crucial element of our plan. With the leap in production capacity, particularly high-quality color production, we are confident of growing our slice of the print advertising market in this country."

As Perera explains, the company's immediate plans also involve improving efficiencies and cutting unnecessary costs throughout the production chain. For this reason, Upali has specified a 546mm cut-off for the new Community SSC press which will allow greater format flexibility and reduce paper consumption on all titles. "Newsprint costs are one of the key challenges for us in running a profitable, successful business day-to-day," comments Perera. "We need to gain greater control of this to ensure we can maintain a competitive business model that can provide the products our readers and advertisers want."

Headquartered in the capital, Colombo, Upali Newspapers publishes many of the country's leading Sinhalese titles, as well as a number of English-language newspapers, including Daily Divaina, Sunday Divaina, Daily Island and Sunday Island. Upali also prints several weekly special interest and lifestyle magazines, among these, weekly science magazine Vidusara, Nawaliya for women, the children's title Sujaya/Nenjaya, Sunday paper Divamina, and the weekly Buddhist title Budumaga.

Lakshman Perera is very positive about the development and growth of Upali Newspapers in the near future. "We've worked very well with Goss technology for 31 years so we're very confident in its long-term quality and reliability. This latest generation, state-of-the-art Community press model will help us attract the top advertisers and increase circulations while maintaining better control of the bottom line."

The new press for Upali Newspapers is scheduled for shipment in August this year.

(gossinternational.com)