Since last September, work has been in full swing at the Pollina printing plant in Luçon, Vendée. The slab for the new industrial hall has been poured and the roof installed. The offset company, which employs 210 people, is expanding by 5,000 m2 to reach 47,000 m2 by May.
This extension will enable the workshop to be redeployed. Stocks will be moved to the new area, freeing up space to reposition equipment in the center of the enlarged site.
This is particularly true of the new press we received in September: a seventh Komori 5-color sheetfed offset press with acrylic varnish unit, a finish that the company had not previously offered. Used on book covers and industrial catalogs, acrylic varnish is very popular with customers, who find it a less costly form of protection than laminating or UV varnish.
Pollina will also be installing its sixth Müller Martini bindery line for cardboard bindings, ordered in February.
Photovoltaic panels will be installed on the roof of the new building, covering 25% of the site's total electricity consumption.
For Laurent Pollina, manager of the 35-million euro printing plant, the investment in the building and machinery is substantial: over 10 million euros.
But it's a necessary step. Indeed, this new equipment must respond to a new trend observed by the printer: since 2022-2023, the company manager has noticed that the year is marked by strong disparities in activity. The second half of the year concentrates most of the business. Orders for back-to-school and Christmas books, as well as school diaries, accumulate over a short period. The company even had to call on up to 50 temporary workers to meet this increase, and its machinery was reaching the limits of its capacity.
Other investment projects are under consideration, but Laurent Pollina will say no more for the moment.
