SUSSEX, Wisconsin (From the Milwaukee Business Journal) -- Quad/Graphics Inc. announced two new plant closures in response to its weak third-quarter performance, which included a net loss of $552 million.

The Sussex-based commercial printing company, which has followed a consolidation strategy since its 2010 acquisition of World Color Press Inc. that has closed 29 total printing plants, will close its plants in Augusta, Ga., and East Greenville, Pa., by the end of the year, CEO Joel Quadracci said Wednesday.

The Augusta plant for Quad/Graphics employs 250, specializing in printing retail advertising inserts and catalogs, and the East Greenville plant employs about 400, specializing in printing magazines and catalogs. Some of those jobs will move to Wisconsin, where the company's 14 highly efficient manufacturing and distribution centers have excess capacity to absorb the additional work.

The closures are part of a $100 million cost reduction program, which will also include productivity increases, a new management structure, and an emphasis on reducing administrative expenses.

Quad/Graphics' sales dropped 6.5 percent to $1.2 billion in the third quarter, compared with the same period in 2014.

The net loss of $552 million, or $11.50 per share, was a severe disappointment compared with the same period a year ago, when the company reported net income of $24.4 million, or 50 cents per share, Quadracci said. The results reflect a $533 million after-tax one-time impairment from an acquisition.

"This $100 million cost take-out program, this isn't like we woke up one day and said we had to take $100 million out because of the third quarter," Quadracci said during the earnings conference call. "It was a continuation of cost we were planning to take out. But I was frustrated with the results. I said we've got to go faster, and be more bold than we were before. We've got to get ahead of the curve."

The company will help relocate laid off employees who are willing to move to other plants, including the Wisconsin plants, where Quadracci said the company has struggled to find labor.

Earlier this year Quad/Graphics also announced plant closures in Enfield, Conn., and Loveland, Colo.