“Clients have been extremely supportive and everything is moving in the right direction,” said a Polestar spokesman.
“All the reprinting bar one product has been contained within the Bicester site, which is the benefit of being part of a large group. If things like this ever happen then we can all pull together and make it work to get things out of the door,” he added.
Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service was called to the site, at Chaucer Business Park in Launton Road, Bicester, at around 1am on Monday after employees were unable to contain a fire that is believed to have started on a gas-powered forklift-truck. No-one was hurt.
Speaking to PrintWeek yesterday afternoon (5 June) Rewley Road station manager David Bray said that more than 100 firefighters had so far attended the scene to tackle the blaze, which was under control.
According to Bray around half of the “temporary structure” had been saved but specialist contractors were needed to remove the steel framework and collapsed roof from the remainder to allow fire crews access to stop “the huge piles and pallets of print” from smoldering. No printing equipment was damaged, Bray confirmed.
Among the raft of business, glossy and consumer titles printed at the site is free publication Time Out, of which more than 225,000 copies were destroyed, forcing the publisher to delay distribution until Thursday.
Around 80,000 and copies were salvaged distributed as usual to subscribers, cultural institutions, retailers, clubs, pubs and restaurants, while the edition for Thursday’s distribution was being printed ready to be delivered to an alternative warehouse for distribution on Thursday morning, the publisher said.
Time Out managing director Greg Miall said: “This is the first time that this kind of situation has arisen in over 44 years of production and whilst some magazines survived, we will not be able to distribute as usual until Thursday this week.
“We are just grateful that no-one was hurt in the incident and ask that our readers and users continue to use our website and continue to engage with us through our social networks and through comments and reviews.”
A spokesman for Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said that it would remain at the scene for at least the next 24-hours to ensure safety and oversee salvage work. One officer is currently on site and a formal investigation is underway but the fire is not being treated as suspicious.