| Print firm in management buyout |
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| Written by Adrie van der Luijt | |
| Wednesday, 02 July 2008 | |
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Somerset print works Butler and Tanner has been sold in a management buyout for £700,000.
The MBO consortium was led by Kevin Sarney, three former directors and businessman Felix Dennis, who plan talks with trade unions and other interested parties on the future of the firm. Equipment withdrawn They bought all printing equipment just hours before an auction led by administrators UHY Hacker Young closed. The four men had previously been unable to come up with the administrators' asking price. The Somerset Standard reported on Tuesday that buyers who had already bought equipment, including computers, desks, furniture and heavy duty printing presses, are unhappy after being told by UHY that the equipment had been withdrawn and was now the property of the consortium. Butler & Tanner, one of Europe’s leading printers, went into administration with the loss of 287 jobs. It is not clear at present how many staff will be re-employed. Andrew Andronikou and Peter Kubik, partners at the London office turnaround and recovery department of UHY Hacker Young were appointed administrators of the assets of Butler and Tanner Printers Ltd in May 2008 after failed attempts to resolve a rancorous long-running industrial dispute between the company’s management and the union Unite. Kubik said that the consortium still had a long way to go in order to save the company, including negotiations with the landowners of the factory and the lease of some of the larger printing machinery. Stark competition Butler & Tanner is based in Frome, Somerset, and had won awards for the production values of its books, magazines and museum catalogues, which included best-sellers by Jamie Oliver, Delia Smith and Nigella Lawson. The 150-year old firm had annual sales of £35 million and also produced annual reports for blue chip clients including Shell, Marks & Spencer and Vodafone. The firm was acquired by Media & Print Investments Plc (MPI) in August 2007. Its previous management assessed that changes to the current working practices were needed to ensure its long-term viability in the face of stark competition from Eastern Europe and the Far East. The company’s proposed changes to workers contracts, which saw the redundancy of 287 staff, were deemed unacceptable by Unite, and its members at the company voted in favour of strike action. MPI said that it had decided to withdraw finances after Unite issued a strike warning in a dispute over working practices and cost-savings. Workers received notice by letter on a Saturday morning that the plant had been closed with immediate effect and with loss of earnings and pension contributions. Related articles Related links |
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