Quad/Graphics is nearing completion of the first phase of a printing production project, which had been delayed for a few years. Located about 12 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, the facility's first phase is a 92,000-sq.-ft. (8,546-sq.-m.) building, but the company has plans to grow to more than 1 million square feet (92,900-sq.-m.).

Quad/Graphics Presses
To Roll In OKC

Quad/Graphics, the nation's largest privately held printer of magazines and catalogs, expects to open its much-anticipated and long-delayed printing facility in Oklahoma City this summer. The Pewaukee, Wis.-based company announced the choice of Oklahoma City for its new plant nearly three years ago, but the project was put on hold as the economy soured.
        The 92,000-sq.-ft. (8,546-sq.-m.) plant is on a 168-acre (68-hectare) site 12 miles (19 km.) southeast of downtown. Plans call for the facility to grow to more than 1 million square feet (92,900-sq.-m.) over the next several years. Initially, Quad/Graphics will install two web offset presses. Gravure press equipment will be added in 2005.
        "Quad/Oklahoma will feature a manufacturing platform engineered for nimbleness," says Thomas A. Quadracci, president and CEO. "We're constructing and equipping the plant to rapidly adapt to changing client needs in terms of geodemographics, targeted delivery and shortened concept to consumer cycles."
        Quad/Graphics, which employs 11,000 and has annual sales of $1.8 billion, selected Oklahoma City after looking at several western cities. The company says Oklahoma City's advantages include its central location. The plant site, located off I-240, is within one day's drive of the company's existing production plants in Wisconsin and Georgia.
        Quadracci says the company is pursuing the expansion in anticipation of an influx of new business as the economy stabilizes. "We're preparing now for future business opportunities," he says. "The demand for print is certain to rebound with the economy."

Imation is spending $49 million to expand its data storage cartridge facility in Weatherford. The addition will become operational in 2004.

        In Weatherford, west along I-40 from Oklahoma City, Imation, a global developer and manufacturer of data storage cartridges, chose its plant for a $49-million expansion to develop advanced media coating capabilities. The 40,000-sq.-ft. (3,716-sq.-m.) project will become operational during the first half of 2004. While initial products will approach 400 gigabytes per cartridge, ultimately the new coating capability will enable Imation to develop tape cartridges with capacities reaching 1 terabyte and beyond within the next decade. One terabyte is the equivalent of 1 million megabytes of data.
        The Weatherford facility currently employs about 50 and Imation has not revealed the employment impact of the expansion.