The proposal is to make 86 redundancies that will affect the press room, bindery, engineering, stores, and line management departments.
Paul Utting, Wyndeham Group’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Since the restructuring programme we implemented at Wyndeham Heron in 2008, the UK economy has continued to deteriorate and the company’s operating margins have suffered as a result. In addition, whilst market prices have increased marginally in the past year this has not been sufficient to offset the significant increases in raw materials and rising utility costs. These factors have had a significant negative impact on the financial performance of the business.
“This consultation process will also address our need to improve the utilisation of the reduced range of equipment operated at the site following the fire damage to the Manroland Lithoman IV 72pp printing press in July 2011. Despite the loss of this press, we have continued to meet all of our customers’ schedules and intend to do so as a result of these proposed changes. With market volumes expected to continue decreasing and the uncertainty surrounding Manroland’s future, it is unlikely we will repair or replace this machine for the time being. Therefore, we have no option other than to reduce Wyndeham Heron’s cost base in order to ensure the business achieves adequate and sustainable levels of profit and cash flow.”
About Wyndeham Group
Wyndeham says: “Wyndeham Group is the largest commercial web offset printing business in the UK, employing 1,178 staff across eight manufacturing sites with headquarters in London. Turnover for 2011 was approximately £130 million. The group provides heatset web offset printing, sheet-fed printing, continuous direct mail, and pre-media services for the magazine publishing, catalogue, commercial, and public sectors. Clients include IPC Media, Condé Nast, Trader Media, The National Magazine Company, Haymarket Media, Bauer, JD Williams, Opel, Financial Times, and The Economist Group. Wyndeham Group is owned by Walstead Investments, a privately-held turnaround specialist. Walstead embarked on a buy-and-consolidate strategy in November 2008 when it acquired Wyndeham Press Group from Landsbanki, the insolvent Icelandic bank. Subsequent acquisitions included Southernprint (from Newsquest Media) in 2009, Apple Web (from Trader Media Group) in 2010, and St Ives Web Division (from St Ives plc) in 2011.”
