The Financial Times immediately moved to secure its London print capability by reviving its previously dormant subsidiary, St Clements Press, which has taken over as third-party operator of the Newsfax plant in Stratford.
PrintWeek broke the news of Newsfax's fall into administration yesterday. The Stratford site, Newsfax (Bow), is in administration with BDO. The administration of Newsfax International in Rainham is being handled by KPMG.
In a statement, a Financial Times spokeswoman said: "The Financial Times is one of Newsfax's oldest and largest customers and we are deeply concerned about the situation the business finds itself in. Newsfax has been working with its creditors but has unfortunately been unable to agree a way forward. The third-party agreement with our subsidiary, St Clements Press, will enable the Financial Times to ensure continuity of production for itself and others."
The publisher was unable to comment further on whether this was likely to be a long-term solution, or not.
Production at the larger Newsfax site in Rainham, Essex ceased yesterday.
Major customer Metro has switched production to Newsprinters Broxbourne, although the publisher declined to comment on the situation this morning, or on whether this would be a permanent move.
Prior to its administration, Newsfax was understood to be pitching hard to retain the Metro contract.
This morning Unite issued a statement saying that it would fight for TUPE arrangements for the 60 union members at Rainham, if the Metro contract was moved to the News International plant.
Unite national officer Steve Sibbald described the Newsfax situation as "a cruel blow", and said: "We will be investigating the legal situation if, as expected, the contract to print the Metro is transferred to NI."
Meanwhile, financial daily City A.M. shifted its 135,000 print run to Iliffe Print in Cambridge.
The weekly Camden New Journal, which was due to go to press at Newsfax yesterday, was instead printed at West Ferry Printers.
CNJ production manager Sarah Starkins told PrintWeek: "Quite a few people contacted us willing to help, and West Ferry saved us this week. It's been a bit frantic as you can imagine, and obviously we've got to look at a long-term solution," she said. "No-one has actually contacted us from Newsfax."
USA Today has moved production to Web Print in Barking. The newspaper's UK franchisee Iain Conochie said: "It all happened very quickly. We're shocked, really. It's a difficult climate but I certainly wasn't expecting Newsfax to close down."
In its latest accounts to 31 March 2011, Newsfax International posted a £1.2m bottom-line profit (2010 loss: £281,000) on sales up 4.5% to £24.8m, which the directors described as "a considerable improvement" on the prior year, although they also warned that the company had breached certain banking covenants and was in discussions with its banks.
The company posted a £110,000 exceptional charge after making a number of redundancies as part of a cost-cutting programme.
The accounts also reveal that Newsfax had entered into an interest rate swap arrangement on its bank funding. This had a liability of £1.2m due to current low interest rates.
NatWest and Lloyds Banking Group were listed as the company's bankers.
