FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Music

Ontario to Open North America's Second Largest Pressing Plant

Precision Record Pressing Inc. is a joint venture between a Canadian music distributor and a Czech vinyl manufacturer.
Image courtesy of Pixabay

A 20,000 square foot vinyl pressing plant, Precision Record Pressing Inc., will open in Burlington, Ontario this fall. The operation is a joint venture, co-presented by Canadian music distributor Isotope Music Inc. and Czech vinyl manufacturer GZ, a business that Bloomberg called the biggest vinyl manufacturer in the world in 2015, which currently fills orders for Universal, Sony Canada, and a number of independent labels.

Advertisement

Although the plant won't be officially open until September, Precision will begin producing vinyl in the second week of August. Isotrope president Gerry McGhee told FYI Music News that phase one of production will yield 4.5 million records from the Burlington plant, along with 2 million from the Czech facility. Phase two will see the addition of five new automated presses featuring "heat control and a lot of safety features that weren't in the old machines," which will knock the unit production up to 11 million records and statically make the Burlington location the second largest plant in North America.

Despite the significant size of the operation, McGhee says that he wants to support independent labels, which is good news for those of us concerned by the way major labels to crowding smaller scale imprints out of pressing plants during the so-called "vinyl boom." "We are more than happy to look at 200-300 unit runs," he said. "We're very aware of the independent market and the way they've been treated."

According to the article, the company is also looking to expand: "We've already bought a plant in the US based in the Midwest and there'll be a west coast plant so we'll have three in North America," explained McGhee.

At full capacity, the Burlington facility will be turn around orders in 6-8 weeks.

Recently, the BBC found that half the people who buy vinyl don't actually listen to it. Meanwhile, Canadian company Viryl Technologies has developed a fully automated record press that could help modernize the vinyl industry.

Follow Alexander on Twitter.