The Amber Press in Ripley has been closed due to advances in technology leading to a lack of demand.
Pete Spendlove, who has run the Amber Press since 1995, along with friends Brian Woolley and Alan Meakin, said: ‘It was a very sad day – we’ve all put a lot into the company, but the writing has been on the wall for a couple of years now.
‘The decision to close was made last September. It’s down to technology and computerisation; people don’t need printing presses any more. Printers like us have to diversify to survive and we’re all a bit too old.’The trio had worked at the GC Brittain and Son presses which printed the Ripley and Heanor News and moved with it when it was sold to Johnston Press in 1979.
Spendlove said: ‘Most old printing presses go to Africa these days because they still use the old printing methods.
‘They’ll renovate them and put them back to work; they’re still capable of doing a job.”
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