The Prime Minister will this evening inaugurate the new premises of Progress Press in Mrieħel, marking the culmination of a €30m investment in premises and equipment which has placed one of Malta's oldest printing presses among the leading ones in the Mediterranean.
This is the first time in 90 years that Progress Press will have moved into purpose-built premises.
Present for this evening's ceremony will be Archbishop Paul Cremona and the Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Muscat.
Their presence, along with that of the prime minister, will underline the historical significance of the event, as well as its commercial importance.
Progress Press was actually set up as a political printing press by Lord Strickland. He bought his first printing machines in 1921 and the press was formally set up in 1922.
The political environment could not have been more different at the time, than it is now. Strickland needed his newspapers to fend off the political rivals, notably the Nationalist Party. By 1927 he was Chief of the Ministry (Prime Minister) having formed an alliance (the compact) with the Labour Party.
What followed were more bitter battles with the Nationalists and the Church, with the latter banning a series of Progress Press newspapers - which Strickland promptly renamed and carried on!
The press took its name from Il-Progress, a weekly evening newspaper which Strickland started publishing some months before buying his first printing machines.
The first two machines were bought in July 1921 and Progress Press was set up in what is now Republic Street next to the Church of Sta Barbara. The name 'Progress' captured the mood of the country at the time, the dawn of self-government.
Far from the new, sprawling premises, the first building to host Progress Press consisted of a large entrance, an office, three rooms where the printing machines were installed, a printers' office, a store room and a number of other rooms. The press was valued at £3,340.
The first milestone for the new press was reached on February 3, 1922 when Strickland launched an English supplement to Il-Progress - The Times of Malta - a title which 13 years later was to become a daily national newspaper. In 1924 a bilingual newspaper - The Times of Malta u 'l Progress, was launched.
New ground was broken with Ix-Xemx (The Sun) an afternoon daily which was launched on September 22, 1928. This was the first ever Maltese language daily, reaching a circulation of over 4,000, high for that time.
Its purpose, the newspaper said, was to fight 'the poisonous vipers' that were crushing Malta's name under their feet.
Ix-Xemx was banned by the Church on May 6, 1930 and Strickland, on the following day, turned Il-Progress into a daily. When that too fell foul of the Church, Progress Press launched Id-Dehen as another daily, which was later similarly banned. Il Berka (Il-Berqa) then followed.
In time, Progress transformed itself from a political to a commercial enterprise, with the newspapers becoming national rather than political.
In 1931 the press moved to 341 St Paul Street, taking over a building built in 1910 and used as a cigarette-making factory by Constantine Colombos. During the time of the Knights, the same site was occupied by the Palace of the Fountains, of which nothing survives.
Strickland House, as it has been called since, was bought out of a loan of €5,564 provided by Lady Strickland. By 1948 the value of the building was estimated at £22,000.
Strickland House was hit twice by bombs in the second world war but the production of the newspapers was never halted. Strickland, however, had taken the precaution of dispersing his newsprint warehouses. He also set up some printing machines at his residence, Villa Bologna - just in case.
In the decades following the war Progress Press developed as a major commercial printing press while continuing to print the newspapers.
A socialist mob badly damaged the premises and some of the machines on October 15, 1979 during a political protest, and the front part of the building had to be rebuilt.
But the biggest problem to face the press over the years was the space it needed for its machines. Walls were demolished and the configuration of machines was altered in a manner which amazed foreign engineers, but the company eventually had to bow to the inevitable and, just 30 months ago decided to move out of Valletta.
The contract for the land in Mrieħel was signed in June 2009. The contract of works followed a month later and the project began in September 2009. Exactly a year later, Progress Press began printing The Times at the new premises.
The rest is... the present.
Progress Press is part of the Allied Group, which is also the owner of timesofmalta.com
(Historical information sourced from the book 'Strickland House' by Victor Aquilina)
More information at
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110728/business-news/Progress-Press-opens-new-30-million-state-of-the-art-Mrie-el-premises-tomorrow.377685