Quebecor World Inc. was a

printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

subsidiary of Quebecor Inc. based in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. It comprised a number of small and large print shops throughout the world. In 2010, Quebecor World (now known as Worldcolor) was acquired by Wisconsin-based Quad/Graphics.

History

Quebecor Printing started in 1954 with a single printing press. It began its expansion outside of Canada in 1985, when it bought Pendell Printing, a

Midland, Michigan Midland is a city in Midland County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The population was 42,547 at the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Midland metropolitan statistical area, part of the larger Saginaw-Midland-Bay City ...

-based company and renamed Quebecor Pendell Printing Incorporated. The old Pendell plant became a Quad/Graphics (which acquired Quebecor World in 2010) until it closed in 2019. In 1988, it purchased the printing plants of

Bell Canada Enterprises BCE Inc., an abbreviation of its former name Bell Canada Enterprises Inc., is a publicly traded Canadian holding company for Bell Canada, which includes telecommunications providers and various mass media assets under its subsidiary Bell ...

. This was followed by the 1990 purchase of the shops of Maxwell Graphics Incorporated of Minnesota from Maxwell Communication Corporation.

Merger with World Color Press

In 1999, Quebecor Printing merged with World Color Press in a US$2.7 billion deal to create Quebecor World. ( World Color Press was founded in 1904 in St. Louis, MO. World Color had pursued major expansions in 1996 and 1997, purchasing Ringier America and

Rand McNally Rand McNally is an American technology and publishing company that provides mapping software and hardware for consumer electronics, commercial transportation, and education markets. The company is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois with a di ...

's Book Services Group.)

Financial struggles

Quebecor entered a difficult period in the early 2000s as the market has gradually shifted focus to

digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, an ...

. In response, the company's Board of Directors named Wes Lucas President and CEO, replacing

Pierre Karl Péladeau Pierre Karl Péladeau (; born 16 October 1961), also known by his initials PKP, is a Canadian businessman, billionaire and former politician. He was also the MNA ( Member of the National Assembly) for Saint-Jérôme. Péladeau is the president ...

, and announced a reorganization of its American book and magazine platforms, closing plants in

Kingsport, TN Kingsport is a city in Sullivan and Hawkins counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It lies along the Holston River and had a population of 55,442 at the 2020 census. It is the largest city in the Kingsport–Bristol metropolitan area, w ...

, Phoenix, Arizona, and Brookfield, WI. Quebecor World (USA) Inc. filed for USA

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

bankruptcy protection on January 21, 2008 at the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, as well as for protection under the Canadian ''

Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act The ''Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act'' (CCAA; ) is a statute of the Parliament of Canada that allows insolvent corporations owing their creditors in excess of $5 million to restructure their businesses and financial affairs. The CCAA with ...

'' at the Superior Court of Québec at Montreal. At the time of bankruptcy, the company's clients included printing publications for

Time (magazine) ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published Weekly newspaper, weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first publishe ...

Parade (magazine) ''Parade'' was an American nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, distributed in more than 700 newspapers nationwide in the United States until 2022. The most widely read magazine in the U.S., ''Parade'' had a circulation of 32 million and a read ...

, and also catalogs for

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. In May 2009, Chicago-based printer

RR Donnelley R.R. Donnelley is an American integrated communications company that provides marketing and business communications, commercial printing, and related services. Its corporate headquarters are located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. In 2007, R ...

tendered an unsolicited bid to purchase Quebecor World,"U.S. printer to swallow former Quebecor World,"
CBS News (January 26, 2010). which was rejected as the company emerged from creditor protection in July (having changed its name back to "Worldcolor Press"). On July 2, 2010, Sussex, Wisconsin-based printer Quad/Graphics purchased Worldcolor.

Locations

Quebecor had facilities in the United States, Canada, Brazil, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Chile, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and India. Former QW plant in

Richmond Hill, Ontario Richmond Hill ( 2021 population: 202,022) is a city in south-central York Region, Ontario, Canada. Part of the Greater Toronto Area, it is the York Region's third most populous municipality and the 27th most populous municipality in Canada. Ric ...

was shuttered in early 2009, but the

Aurora, Ontario Aurora ( 2021 population: 62,057) is a town in central York Region in the Greater Toronto Area, within the Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario, Canada. It is located north of the City of Richmond Hill and is partially situated on the Oak Ridge ...

location was acquired by Quad/Graphics and since sold to

TC Transcontinental Transcontinental Inc., operating as TC Transcontinental, is a Montreal-based packaging, commercial printing and specialty media company. Transcontinental is publicly-traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and has over 7,400 employees—the majori ...

in 2013.

References

4. http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/u-s-printer-to-swallow-former-quebecor-world-1.947690

External links