Transcontinental three-month chart

Transcontinental Inc. says it has won a $1.7-billion contract to print the Globe and Mail in most markets outside the Prairies between 2010 and 2028, renewing an existing contract for 18 years and broadening it to include British Columbia and most of Alberta.

The Montreal-based company, which calls itself Canada's largest printer, says the deal will bring in about $95 million a year, of which about $25 million is new revenue. Its total revenue in 2007 was $2.3 billion.

On the Toronto Stock Exchange, its class A shares gained 60 cents to close at $15.70 after the contract was announced Tuesday.

In a separate statement, the Globe and Mail said Transcontinental will buy high-speed presses capable of putting full colour on all pages of the newspaper and will establish a new printing printing plant in the Toronto area specifically for the newspaper.

Transcontinental said it will invest about $200 million across the country in 2009 and 2010 to give the Globe and Mail all-page colour capability, and to integrate printing of newspapers and flyers.

The newspaper said the contract was awarded after an 18-month process that drew bids from printers from across Canada.

Transcontinental now prints the Toronto-based daily in Mississauga, near Toronto; in Boucherville, near Montreal, and in Halifax.

It is printed in Alberta by Calgary CentralWeb Colourpress and in B.C. by Vancouver College Printers. It was not clear whether those companies sought to renew their contracts.

The Globe and Mail said it plans to choose a printer separately for its prairie region, which covers Manitoba, Saskatchewan, parts of Alberta and parts of northern Ontario.

The newspaper is a division of CTVglobemedia, whose owners include the billionaire Thomson family of Toronto and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.