Tamedia hopes for largest BZM printing order

As BZM is closing its printing plant at the end of March 2013, various BZM printing customers are faced with the question of where they will be accommodated in the future. It is already known that Tamedia's Bubenberg printing center may provide the printing of the Basler Zeitung. Now, both BZM and Tamedia confirmed on request that Tamedia will also print two other BZM titles: The free newspaper Baslerstab (twice weekly 171'000 copies each) and the Kleinbasel neighborhood newspaper Vogel Gryff (fortnightly 20'000 copies).

Half a million Coop newspaper copies still homeless

But it has yet to be decided who will take over BZM's largest regular print job in the future: a partial run of the Coop Zeitung and the Coop action magazine (510'000 copies each per week). The contract does not actually expire until the end of 2013, said Coop spokeswoman Denise Stadler when asked. Therefore, talks with other printers must now be held first. "There is more than one print shop in Switzerland capable of taking on this run," she held. The spokeswoman added, however, that Coop was not surprised by the premature cancellation of the print order. "We were informed by BZM in a timely manner," she said, adding that the matter would not have any legal repercussions.

Tamedia stands ready for Coop

BZM has apparently also given some thought to where the existing print customers could be accommodated. "The plan is to print all print jobs, as far as possible, at Tamedia's Zurich printing center from April 2013," said BZM spokesman Roger Berger. But can Tamedia, which already prints another partial run of the "CoopZeitung" (312'000 copies) in Bern and the French-language edition Coopération (419'000 copies) in Lausanne, even take over the half million Coop copies from Basel? "Yes," says Tamedia spokesman Christoph Zimmer, "because the Coop Zeitung can be printed during the day - and our printing centers still have enough capacity there." The company had therefore made an offer to Coop and all other BZM printing customers.

Specialty printer Birkhäuser is also under discussion

But the liaison between Coop and BZM is by no means limited to the BZM newspaper printing plant. Birkhäuser + GBC, BZM's specialist printing company in Reinach BL, is also "an important printing partner for Coop, especially for marketing and PR," as Stadler explains. Among other things, Birkhäuser prints posters, leaflets and brochures for the major distributor based in Basel. Now, however, BZM apparently also wants to sell Birkhäuser. This was stated by CEO Rolf Bollmann in an interview printed yesterday in the "Basler Zeitung". Original sound: "The biggest chunk is now the Birkhäuser printing plant, but that is not a restructuring case. We want to sell it."

However, a denial followed this morning: "A sale of Birkhäuser + GBC is being examined and is not yet certain (even if this came across differently in the Baz interview)," corrected BZM spokesman Roger Berger. Nevertheless - what would a sale of the specialty printer mean for Coop? The retailer is relaxed: "We would wait and see how the cooperation with the new owner goes," writes Stadler.

Markus Knöpfli