Printing firm saved after new owners take control
A STALWART Banbury printing firm has been saved from administration after its parent company was bought out by a major competitor.
Stones the Printers in Wates Way, which employs 140 staff, will continue to operate after its parent company – magazine printing firm Goodhead Group – was sold to independent printing giant The Polestar Group.
Administrators KPMG LLP, engineered the sale of Stones last Wednesday (November 28), the same day the Goodhead Group went into administration.
Goodhead-owned BGP in Bicester, which employs 400 staff, was also purchased as part of the deal.
The Goodhead Group had made losses of more than £70 million over the past five years after it lost a major contract to print the British Telecom phone book.
Barry Hibbert, CEO of Polestar UK Print Ltd commented: “We are delighted to add the firepower and product capability of BGP and Stones to the Polestar portfolio, which will strengthen and extend our client service offering substantially.
He added: “BGP and Stones are superbly equipped facilities with dedicated and highly skilled employees and, whilst some changes will be inevitable, it is our intention to continue with the businesses in their current form. We are confident that the integration of these operations into the Polestar Group will be a positive move for customers, employees and suppliers of the business.”
Allan Graham, joint administrator and restructuring partner at KPMG, said: “The printing sector has suffered extremely difficult trading conditions over the past few years, but we are pleased that we have been able to rescue the business and more than 500 jobs with today’s sale to Polestar, one of the market leaders in the printing sector.”
Stones The Printers is a high quality, full colour sheet-fed printers which produces both commercial and periodical publications.
BGP is a high volume web offset facility which prints weekly, monthly and bi-monthly publications.
At time of going to press Polestar could not confirm whether all jobs at the two plants would be secure after the takeover.
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Thursday 20 June 2013
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