Manufacturing jobs go at Sanderson Design Group
Sanderson Design Group has cut jobs at its Lancaster and Loughborough factories as part of a cost cutting initiative it promised to shareholders after a profit warning.
Their “Our Future Factory” initiative has identified annualised cost savings of £1.5m from FY2026 onwards.
The number of roles reduced in manufacturing was 44 in total – 27 of them were at Standfast & Barracks, the fabric printing factory in Lancaster, and 17 of them were at Anstey & Co., the wallpaper printing factory in Loughborough.
The company now has 194 people in manufacturing out of a total workforce of 550, of which about 500 are based in the UK.
In November 2024, Tim Preston, a manufacturing and supply chain specialist, was appointed Group Operations Director, and he oversaw the 15% reduction in Sanderson’s manufacturing workforce, which will bring annualised cost savings of £1.5m at an exceptional cost of £0.7m.
The two factories, Standfast & Barracks textiles in Lancaster and Anstey Wallpaper Company in Loughborough, print for Sanderson’s own brands and for third party customers.
During the year, manufacturing volumes from own brands and third-party customers were impacted by “the challenging consumer and industry environment” with demand for higher margin repeat orders declining and some customers delaying planned product launches.
Manufacturing volumes, from own brands and third-party customers, reflect the challenging consumer and industry environment and a key focus for the board will be to improve the efficiency of the factories and return them to profitability.
In the accompanying commentary to Sanderson’s annual results the business said: “The factories have benefited from considerable recent investment, including a new digital printer at Standfast, which was purchased and commissioned during the year at a total cost of approximately £1m.”
Total manufacturing sales fell 10% to £31.7m (FY2024: £35.0m) with total sales at Standfast at £16.9m (FY2024: £19.1m), with total sales at Anstey of £14.8m (FY2024: £15.9m). Overall, digital printing as a proportion of both factories output was 54% (FY2024: 50%).
Sanderson saw revenue drop to £100.4m (FY2024: £108.6m), down 8% in what it described as “a sustained challenging consumer environment”.
The company posted a loss before tax of £13.9m, compared with a profit before tax of £10.4m in FY2024.
This was heavily impacted by a number of one-off costs including an impairment charge of £16.3m related to goodwill that arose on the acquisition of Clarke & Clarke in October 2016.
