Music

North America's second largest vinyl pressing plant is opening in Burlington

by Richard Howard

Last month, an announcement that Toronto-based next-gen vinyl press manufacturer Viryl Technologies was partnering with the country’s sole record pressing business, Canada Boy Vinyl. This pointed to Canada once again becoming a powerhouse in the sphere of vinyl manufacturing (ever notice how many of your old records are made in Canada?).

Well, it looks like that was just the tip of the iceberg: a Burlington, ON-based startup named Precision Record Pressing Inc. has now announced that it is a mere month away from beginning operations.

The man behind Precision Record Pressing is Gerry McGhee, a stalwart member of the Canadian music industry. Following the dissolution of his band Brighton Rock, who had a few hits in the late ’80s, McGhee founded Isotope Music, which now describes itself as “Canada’s largest music and vinyl wholesaler.” It was the success of this venture, McGhee explains, that led to him entering the vinyl pressing business. It also turns out that a bit of ‘bad’ luck has actually worked out in his favour.

“[The Canadian major labels approached me and] promised to support me if I could get this together, and I began a two year search for machines. I went to plants in the US, UK, Japan, trying to find presses, but was always outbid for them. That was the old technology and it is kind of a blessing that when I did find GZ and started a co-venture with them it was with new machines.”

The ‘GZ’ McGhee refers to is the Czech vinyl manufacturing company that he has partnered with to create Precision Record Pressing. Like Viryl Technologies’ units, GZ’s are highly automated and superior to the older style machines still used in many of the world’s plants. Precision has already begun pressing at the existing plant in Prague – with the addition of the Burlington plant and planned expansion, the company is looking at becoming one of the continent’s largest suppliers.

“In phase one we can do 4.5 million units out of the Burlington plant plus 2 million from the Czech plant. We’ve already put phase two into motion and that is adding five new automated presses. That’ll put us over the 11 million mark, making us the second largest plant in North America. 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.”

Interestingly, Precision will not require large minimum runs like many other large plants. “We are more than happy to look at 200-300 unit runs,” McGhee stated – runs that will be geared towards independent labels and unsigned artists. While smaller plants also offer similar packages, it’ll be interesting to see the price point they’re able to offer. He also assured that turnaround times will be on the lower side at an estimated 6-8 weeks all told.

Already contracted by Universal and Sony along with some independent labels, McGhee vows to keep the focus on Canadian clients – at least for a while. He does anticipate working with US labels (including majors) in the future, as local plants have done in years gone by.