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MONTREAL (CP) - Quebecor World Inc. (TSX:IQW.SV) is cutting about 735 jobs at its U.S. book and magazine business and transferring the work elsewhere.
The company is shutting a book-making plant in Kingsport, Tenn., and a magazine plant in Brookfield, Wis.
"The work is going to the different facilities in the network," company spokesman Tony Ross said in an interview Tuesday.
"Some of the work will include facilities in Latin America as well as facilities in the United States."
But Ross said he didn't have an exact breakdown of where the work would go.
The announcement comes about a month after Quebecor World said it would close a printing plant in France that employs 185 people.
The Strasbourg facility specializes in printing mass-distribution advertising flyers and is part of the company's French division, which has long been a financial problem for the printing giant.
Tuesday's news also came less than a week after Quebecor World said it would shift more resources to Mexico and other Latin American countries as well as expand some U.S. plants to improve its book-printing operations.
A shift in market demand has increased Latin sales to American publishers. Quebecor World's Latin American sales to U.S. customers grew by approximately 75 per cent from 2004 to 2005.
The closures in Tennessee and Wisconsin are expected to be complete by the third quarter and will involve restructuring charges of about $30 million, of which half is accounted for in non-cash items.
Quebecor said it is undertaking the reorganization to "improve customer service, maximize asset utilization and increase efficiency."
"The reorganization involves the investment in new state-of-the-art equipment and the decommissioning or relocation of certain existing assets," the company said.
Quebecor World is one of the world's biggest commercial printers, producing books, magazines, catalogues, direct mail and other products. It has about 31,000 employees in more than 130 facilities around the world.
Last week, it was announced Pierre Karl Peladeau would step back from directly managing the printing giant to put his focus on the challenges of his Quebecor Media empire.
The company said American executive Wes Lucas would replace Peladeau as CEO of Quebecor World.
© The Canadian Press, 2006
