OKLAHOMA CITY--Feb. 6, 2003-- Bolstered by growing client interest in its Oklahoma City printing plant (currently under construction), Quad/Graphics has accelerated the timetable for launching gravure operations there by one year. Two new 108-inch gravure presses will be installed and made production-ready in 2004 rather than in 2005, as previously announced. The two gravure presses will complement the two web offset presses that will start up this summer when the company officially opens the facility. "We are encouraged by growing client interest in our newest location and confident that the timing is right to pull the trigger on gravure in Oklahoma City," said Tom Quadracci, President and CEO of Quad/Graphics. "With our team and our technology, we will launch another first-rate printing plant, unparalleled in capabilities, product flexibility and customer service. Simultaneously, we will bring even more jobs to a city brimming with talent and hungry for a future-focused company." Accordingly, Quad/Graphics has revised its construction plans. Currently, the company is constructing Phase I to house its initial web offset and saddle stitching operations. Phase I encompasses nearly 217,000 square feet. Once construction permits are secured (sometime in the next six weeks), Quad/Graphics will immediately start building Phase II, which will add 311,000 square feet to the plant. By mid-2004, the plant will measure close to 530,000 square feet. As the plant size expands so, too, will the number of employees. Employment will grow from nearly 100 during the first year of operation to many hundreds in subsequent years as work is added to fill the press capacity. "In less than a year from the time we start up our Oklahoma City plant, we'll already have grown it to mega-sized proportions," Mr. Quadracci said. "And, we fully anticipate that in time the plant will grow to well over 1 million square feet and employ more than a thousand employees." When gravure operations begin in 2004, Quad/Graphics' Oklahoma City plant will feature the industry's fastest, most productive gravure presses, regardless of size. The presses, manufactured by Italy-based Cerutti, will be equipped with "Jack Rabbit Gravure" technology - full automation from cylinder loading through signature delivery, including computerized process-control systems by QTI, Quad/Graphics' award-winning research and development subsidiary. Oklahoma City will be Quad/Graphics' third gravure production facility. The company entered the gravure market in 1986 with the opening of its Lomira, Wisconsin, plant and expanded its gravure presence with the startup of its Martinsburg, West Virginia, plant in 1997. Over the past 17 years, Quad/Graphics has added half of all new gravure capacity in the industry between its Lomira and Martinsburg plants.