Transcontinental to close Quebec printing plant, cut 140 jobs

Transcontinental Inc. is to close its printing plant in Quebec City with the loss of 140 jobs.

The printer, which prints marketing products in Quebec City, plans to shift that work to other facilities, principally to its plant in Beauce, Que.

"Conditions in the print market are changing and we must continuously adapt," Jacques Grgoire, president of TC Transcontinental Printing, said in a statement. "In this context, we need to review our equipment utilization to better optimize our platform."

Last week Transcontinental announced a deal to take over print operations of the Toronto Star, which is closing its printing plant north of Toronto.

Its plant in Vaughan, Ont. will take on printing of the Star for the next five years.

Transcontinental is a printing company, but also owns media and digital interests, which are threatened by loss of ad revenue and an eroding subscriber base.

There have been cuts at bothPostmedia and Rogers in the past week.

Transcontinental bought the Sun newspapers in 2013 and was ordered by the Competition Tribunal to sell off 34 of its 74 local newspapers the following year. It ended up shutting 20 local papers and eventually sold the Sun chain to Postmedia.