The closings, expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year, will affect an estimated 735 employee positions—425 in Kingsport and 310 in Brookfield.
The announcement to close the Kingsport plant is a historic event in the industry for some. “Generations of book production people and manufacturing reps were trained by The Kingsport Press ...” says Eugene Schwartz, editor-at-large of ForeWord Magazine for independent publishers, referring to the Kingsport facility’s roots as the Kingsport Press, founded in 1922. “And like all of the book manufacturers of their era half a century ago, what we now know as the book business was built on and rested on the hardware and resources of its manufacturing back room,” says Schwartz, a 50-plus-year veteran of the book publishing industry, who has held positions as a production and manufacturing manager at the likes of Monarch Press, Random House, CRM/Psychology Today and Goodyear/Prentice Hall.
- Companies:
- Quebecor World Direct