Communisis plans restructure to make savings
COMMUNISIS has announced plans to restructure its production facilities as it looks to make annual cost savings of around £4m.
The Leeds-based group, which describes itself as a “leading provider of personalised customer communication services” today said cheque production at the group’s Trafford Wharf site in Manchester will cease by the end of this year, subject to consultation.
The Leeds site will be reconfigured with a substantial amount of the remaining, more commoditised direct-mail print being outsourced and managed instead through the third party supply chain. The more specialist, higher margin direct mail and other production will remain in Leeds.
Communisis said these changes will provide the capacity needed to accommodate the cheque production transferred from Trafford Wharf and the printing of other transactional communications, acting as a supplementary facility for the group’s operations in Liverpool.
The business said the restructuring is consistent with the group’s strategic ob-jective to deliver double digit margin on sales over the next three years and will also provide scope for planned reinvestment in new skills and services.
Chief executive of Communisis, Andy Blundell, said: “These plans are aligned with the group’s strategy to reduce its exposure to the more commoditised sector of the print market by focusing on higher margin specialist production and to improve margins by reducing costs and improving capacity utilisation.”
The changes are expected to yield annual cost savings of approximately £4m from 2014 and give rise to a net exceptional charge of £3.5m in 2013, with a cash cost of £2.8m in the second half of 2013 and £0.7m in the first half of 2014.
