PRESS RELEASE

Paul Casey
Sun Chemical Corporation
Phone: +44 01908 613621
paul.casey@eu.sunchem.com

Terry Ulrick
Terry Ulrick Communications
Phone: +44 01444 831918
terryulrick@tucommunications.co.uk

SQUIB - Sun Chemical's Quality Improvement Programme for Newspapers Prepares for Continental Duty

London - August 25, 2003 -- Sun Chemical's newspaper inks division is launching its successful SQUIB - Sun Quality in a Box - quality improvement programme across Europe.

Launched at the beginning of 2001, SQUIB has brought improved quality awareness and performance to over a dozen major UK regional newspaper production centres.

Now Sun Chemical aims to offer the quality programme to European newspaper publishers as part of the ink maker's avowed aim to help reduce the overall cost of print for all its customers.

Paul Casey, Sun Chemical's Technical Service Director for Coldset Inks and the originator of the SQUIB system, is confident that it can operate as successfully in Europe as it has done in the UK.

"SQUIB has genuinely helped to put quality at the top of the agenda for many newspaper producers. It is aimed at creating team spirit that will lead to quality improvements, the solution of problems and improved financial performance," Casey said.

SQUIB is a specially designed set of materials delivered in a small aluminium case and created to motivate team action amongst newspaper production staff and their colleagues from editorial, advertising and administration. Designed for teams of six to one dozen, SQUIB asks a participating company to appoint its own team of managers and supervisors on a 24 -week programme. The programme requires attendance at 13 one-hour meetings over the 24 weeks with those round the table setting their own measurable standards and their own timetable. The case includes personal organisers, clipboards, CDs, fount and blanket audit sheets, density specifications and quality review forms.

Testimony to the effect the SQUIB programme can have, are two UK newspaper houses both now in their third year of applying the system for their own quality programmes.

At North East Press, Sunderland, Production Director, Gerald Kenny is very enthusiastic about the SQUIB benefits. He says: "Initially there was some resistance from our managers but once they saw we were not introducing a blame culture and they saw how SQUIB could help them identify problems and solve them, we had total co-operation. Today SQUIB is ongoing with meetings taking place every other month."

Mike Haigh, Production Director at Yorkshire Weekly Newspapers, Wakefield is another SQUIB devotee. Here monthly meetings are chaired by Press & Publishing Manager, Martin Edgely, and are delivering proven financial savings.

Mr Haigh adds: "Our SQUIB meetings, attended by about a dozen managers right across production, advertising, editorial, finance and administration identify and delegate key tasks and have shown excellent results. We have improved quality on the presses, improved our performance and accuracy on advertising and created big annual savings. We have also tackled waste both on the press and on unsold newspapers, both returns and house copies. SQUIB has given us a very useful set of disciplines."