After reviewing its business plan and long-term strategic objectives, Transcontinental Inc. today announced that it is selling its book printing assets, namely Transcontinental Gagné printing plant in Louiseville and Transcontinental Métrolitho printing plant in Sherbrooke, to Marquis Book Printing Inc., in Cap-Saint-Ignace, which specializes in book printing.

Given the highly competitive industry of recent years, Transcontinental plans to further specialize in only certain type of markets, such as four-colour web offset printing for educational book markets in Québec, Canada and the United States, a niche where it stands out and has an established reputation. Results in these markets have been excellent and the Corporation is confident about future development.

François Olivier, President and CEO of Transcontinental Inc., says "we thought long and hard before deciding to sell the assets of our Sherbrooke and Louiseville plants. Over the past several months we have made strategic decisions based on changes in the book printing market. We are sure that our one- and two-colour book customers in Québec will continue to be well served by the new acquirer. For our part, we remain well positioned to respond to the demands of our customers who are looking for better marketing solutions in our areas of specialization, including educational book printing."