Future of Pindar’s Preston plant uncertain

THE future of Pindar’s sheet feed printing operations in Preston is in the balance after it was left out of a “pre-pack” deal which saved the company’s main trading base in Scarborough.

Pindar was put up for sale earlier this month following a difficult period of trading which saw it declare a pre-tax loss of £1.4m on sales of of almost £60m last year.

A deal was done whereby the company was placed into administration and rival York Mailing bought the trade and assets of the web offset printing and bindery division of Pindar, which employs 255 staff in Scarborough.

However, the remainder of the business remains in the hands of administrators. The firm employed another 177 people in several locations, including 72 at its Preston site. A spokeswoman for KPMG confirmed that 31 of these have already been made redundant., but that the business is still continuing to trade.

Mark Firmin, Brian Green and Howard Smith of KPMG were appointed as joint administrators of G A Pindar & Son on Tuesday.

Mr Firmin said: “I am delighted that we have been able to sell the largest part of the group, shortly after appointment. In the respect of the other businesses, we are actively seeking buyers and are continuing to speak to a number of interested parties.”

Pindar also owns the worldwide print shop franchisor, Alphagraphics Inc, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah in the US, and Pindar North America, the multi-channel software provider.  

The US operations continue to trade as normal and are not affected by the administration.