Troubled printing giant Quebecor World has shut down its Magog, Quebec facility (located an hour south east of Montreal), while also announcing new contracts, a multi-year deal with McGraw-Hill valued at $285 million extending into 2014 covering textbooks, catalogues and other professional learning products and new magazine printing contracts with four U.S.-based publishers, adding 33 titles. Quebecor World has also amended its credit agreement with its debtor-in-possession lenders giving the company until April 29 to provide its year-end financial statements for 2007.

Quebecor World's Magog plant, opened in 1971, produced magazines, comics and retail inserts for Canadian and U.S. markets. Quebecor World is tying the plant closure to the restructuring program it started three years ago, which included rationalizing to fewer, larger, facilities. A company spokesman tells Canadian Printer that the equipment at the facility, for the most part, will be not be relocated or sold but removed from the market.

The Magog closure accounts for 300 full-time job losses, two-thirds of which were already on temporary layoff. All employees will receive a minimum of 16 weeks of indemnity as provided for by the Quebec Labour Standards and assistance with outplacement services and retraining initiatives.