Quad/Graphics to close in Taunton with loss of 200 jobs

As many as 200 workers will be out of work by the end of January when the Quad/Graphics facility in Taunton closes, according to the Wisconsin book manufacturer.

Emails were sent out Wednesday to workers informing them of the bad news, said spokeswoman Claire Ho.

Ho said workers will be offered either a severance package with limited continuation of medical benefits or the chance to work at another of the company’s locations, most of which are in other parts of the country.

“We want to take care of them,” she said on Friday from her office in Sussex, Wisconsin.

Ho said the plant at 1133 County St., located on Route 140 near the onramp for Route 24, specialized in assembling traditional reading books.

The company’s other Taunton plant, located in Myles Standish Industrial Park, has no openings, she said.

That facility, she said, now employs 130 people and makes retail advertising inserts, not books.

The only other Quad/Graphics facility in Massachusetts, Ho said, is a “specialty printing” plant in Woburn.

She said manufacturing sites in Wisconsin, Nebraska and Oklahoma City have openings for workers.

“Obviously the industry has changed,” Ho said, of the diminishing demand for books.

Quad/Graphics bought the former Worldcolor, formerly known as Quebecor World RPC, in 2010.

The sale included both the County Street plant and the industrial park facility, which began as Retail Printing Corp. and was sold to Quebecor of Canada in 2001.
more at:  http://www.tauntongazette.com/news/20171201/quadgraphics-to-close-in-taunton-with-loss-of-200-jobs