Butler Color Press upgrades facility
EAST BUTLER — Ink and paper began flowing on Monday through a new press at the Butler Color Press.
The company invested more than $10 million in the project to expand its building and install the new press.
Ray Sielski, the Color Press general manager, said the business began preparing for the new Goss C-700 press in March with the construction of concrete slabs designed to withstand the weight of the massive equipment.
He said the C-700 is a new press design developed by Goss with many electrical and technical upgrades that also make the press greener, meaning a reduction in natural gas use and manpower hours.
"There is less waste in this new press," Sielski said.
<table width="300" height="275" border="0" align="right" valign="top" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><embed src="/assets/mov/BE617181220.MOV " width="320" height="250" autostart="true" loop="false" ></embed></td></tr><tr><td align="center"><a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/" target="_blank"><span class="style11">Requires Quicktime Media Player </a><br><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Times New Roman">Video by Brandon Gerthoffer</font></span><td></tr></table>The Goss press was made in New Hampshire, instead of France, like the Butler Eagle's presses at the newspaper's Eagle Production Center that opened in 2003. Those Goss presses also were new technology for both the press and newspaper industries.The Color Press specializes in high quality production and in using heat set printing. The presses are designed to handle long printing runs in the millions of copies for major retail companies nationwide.The company at 119 Bonnie Drive added 10,000 square feet to its 165,000-square-foot building to make room for the new press.The press is 90 feet long and weighs 295,000 pounds. The press prints on full full color at 2,500 fee per minute.The Color Press press and the Butler Eagle press both started up under Vernon L. Wise Jr., Butler Eagle publisher, and founder of the Butler Color Press.This follows a family tradition of press start ups which has been practiced since the Wise family bought the Butler Eagle in 1903.On Monday afternoon Wise pushed the start button on the Color Press' new press, which immediately went to work on a print run of 7.6 million, 12-page advertisement inserts for Macy's, Sielski said.Vernon L. "Chip" Wise III is now the president of the Color Press. He represents the fourth generation of the Wise family in the printing business in Butler.Vernon L. Wise Jr. said, "This investment represents a commitment to Butler County and our employees that the Eagle Printing Co. will continue to be a leader in the printing industry for years to come."When it started in 1979, the Color Press had a single press and 13 employees. Now it has 150 workers and six presses.The Color Press also has merged some of it operation with the Butler Eagle at the newspaper's Eagle Production Center at 514 W. Wayne St.
