LIVONIA, Mich., Dec. 20 -- Valassis has installed a Man Roland printing press in its recently expanded Durham printing facility. It will support Valassis' core product, the Free-Standing Insert (FSI). The FSI provides coupons in a co-operative format and is distributed nationally 42 times per year in the weekend edition of newspapers. The cylinders of the press are smaller in diameter than existing presses allowing for efficient use of paper and faster production time. The new printing press will print at a rate of 3,000 feet per minute. "The Man Roland Press is sized to fit the Valassis FSI products to enable us to produce them as efficiently as possible,'' said William F. Hogg Jr., Executive Vice President of Manufacturing for Valassis. "It was chosen because it features the latest technology in the heatset web industry. It has the capability to run 40-50% faster than current presses and output 50% more pages than the presses it replaced.'' This investment allows Valassis to increase potential production to 13 billion pages per year. Valassis plans to continue its investment in new printing equipment. "A second Man Roland press will be delivered in February of 2002,'' Hogg said. "When all four presses have been installed, Durham's printing capability will be 40% higher.'' The investment in printing presses will continue over the next five years. This strategy will allow Valassis to invest in new production equipment without extending its average of $15 million in annual capital expenditure. Once completed, the upgraded plants will be able to focus on the production of FSIs. Valassis' other printing facility will focus on printing its growing list of cluster-targeted and one-to-one products.