Printweek understands the fire broke out on the folder of the press in the early hours of Tuesday morning (6 May). 

The blaze was initially tackled by employees at the site, with fire crews eventually extinguishing the flames after about 50 minutes.

An industry source told Printweek: “They were lucky. It was touch and go at one point whether the fire was going to spread to the whole factory.”

At the time of writing Walstead Group had not commented on the extent of the damage, and whether the press can or will be repaired.

The Sunday 5000 at Bicester is a unique model, and the only one of its type in operation in the European market. 

The huge press has a maximum web with of 2.64m, a 445mm cut-off and runs at up to 60,000iph.

The giant paper reels required need large cores and do not fit on any other press in the UK, another complicating factor in moving work to other presses in the group. 

The Sunday 5000 also has inline stitching and is used to produce a number of time-sensitive weekly products, including supplements for Walstead’s newspaper clients.

Printweek understands that work has been shifted to other long-grain presses within the group, but with offline stitching and a resulting knock-on impact on production schedules.  

The Sunday 5000 has a chequered past. It was originally part of Polestar’s mega £50m web spend for the Polestar Sheffield gravure and web offset supersite.

After Polestar collapsed the press was acquired by YM Group and installed at its Chantry site.

Walstead then acquired it in 2022 as part of a job lot after YM’s web division went bust, subsequently relocating it to Bicester in 2023. 

Industry sources told Printweek that the press would be out of action for weeks and possibly months if Walstead decides the best course of action is to repair it.

Alternative options being floated include writing the press off and relocating one of the group’s other mothballed web presses – which include the 48pp short-grain Lithoman with inline stitching at Walstead York, among numerous others across its European platform – into Bicester. 

An equivalent brand new press would be likely to cost more than £20m today.