St Ives to close operation
JOBS are at risk at St Ives Group after the printing group revealed plans to close a site in Leeds and transfer its operations to Bradford.
The group’s St Ives Direct facility in Leeds employs 177 staff. A 30 day consultation period has begun with affected staff at the location.
A spokeswoman for the group said she could not confirm the number of staff that will transfer to Bradford or the potential number of redundancies.
The Bradford site presently employs 130 staff.
The announcement follows a review of the Leeds facility and the decision to consolidate the group’s direct mail offering into a single location.
“The proposal will enable St Ives Direct to continue to serve its print and direct mail customers whilst streamlining the number of sites to maintain,” the group said.
“The reshaping of St Ives Direct’s operation will support the group’s overall strategy to providing higher value added printing and marketing services and reduce dependence on sheet fed print.”
St Ives said investment would be made into refurbishing the Bradford facility.
“The decision to close the Leeds site and relocate to Bradford is necessary to modernise and improve the efficiency of our operations,” added Jim McKie, managing director of St Ives Direct.
“We recognise that our employees at both sites have made a valuable contribution to our business and will be looking at ways to keep the number of compulsory redundancies to a minimum, including identifying alternative roles within the group.
“The closure of the Leeds site will enable us to continue with our strategy to provide customers with added value marketing services and to operate successfully in an ever challenging environment.”
St Ives has a total of 13 divisions including book printing and display production.In the financial year ended July 30 2011, St Ives reported sales of £296.8m and employed 2,700 people in 16 operating sites throughout the UK.
