Archant to close printworks near Norwich

Archant's print centre at Thorpe St Andrew, which opened in 1996, will close in November

A newspaper and magazines group has announced the closure of its main printing centre, which employs nearly 100 people.

Archant, which publishes the Eastern Daily Press and East Anglian Daily Times, is shutting its site at Thorpe St Andrew, near Norwich.

From November Archant's newspapers will be printed by Newsprinters, in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.

The 96 staff have been informed there may be redundancies.

In a letter to staff, Archant said the decision had been taken due to "changes" in the newspaper industry and the move providing "substantial cost savings".

The firm, which publishes more than 50 papers and nearly 60 magazines, praised the team at Thorpe as "some of the hardest working and passionate people in our organisation".

It said the Newsprinters site, a subsidiary of News UK, was the largest print centre in the world and "able to offer the capacity and flexibility to print" all its daily newspapers.

The centre prints The Sun, The Telegraph, The Times and the Evening Standard.

Archant said the Thorpe site - which opened in 1996 - would be decommissioned, while staff would transfer from Archant to Newsprinters.

Broxbourne is 100 miles (160km) from Norwich, where the Eastern Daily Press is based, and 75 miles (120km) from Ipswich, where the East Anglian Daily Times is based.

Archant has also announced that chief executive Jeff Henry will step down on Friday after five years, with its chairman Simon Bax taking up the newly-created role of executive chairman.