BemroseBooth moves into administration

BemroseBooth has gone into administration after appointing joint administrators David Rubin and Henry Lan, of David Rubin & Partners, yesterday afternoon (28 June).

Rubin told PrintWeek that the aim was now to save the viable parts of the business and to preserve the jobs of the remaining workforce.

"We are dealing with a high quality and profitable operation, and are confident that a sale can be achieved. Everybody concerned has a part to play in achieving that," he said.

He claimed the business was not being sold as a pre-pack to existing management, but confimed that the management was interested in making an offer.

"The business needs to be sold in the immediate short term so that the customers have a level of confidence about continuity of supply," he added.

"The management are certainly interested in making an offer, but our duty is to ensure that we get the best offer we can for the sale of the business, whoever the successful bidder is."

BemroseBooth suffered from "over-capacity prevailing in the printing market", according to Rubin, as well as declining profitability in the telecom scratch cards market.

Declining margins in the promotional products and secure mail businesses, as well as production issues with the calendar business based in Derby, led to those parts of the business being closed on 21 June, resulting in 160 redunancies.

Some 26 staff were later made redundant at the company's Hull site. Rubin said this followed a decision to cease production of telecom scratch cards in Hull.

The remaining divisions in Hull, which employs 125 people, and the operation in Teesside, which has 34 staff, are trading normally while buyers are sought for the business as a going concern.

Rubin added there had been "a significant level of interest expressed in the business and talks with a number of interested parties are ongoing".

Professional agents Edward Symmons are marketing the business and will advise the joint administrators on a potential sale.

BemroseBooth filed a notice of intent to appoint an administrator at the High Court of Justice on 16 June.

A new company, Bemrosebooth Systems, was created on 8 June 2010, which lists BemroseBooth chief executive Jean Paul Ansel as a director along with Leonard Levie, of BemroseBooth's US-based owner AIAC.

Ansel previously declined to comment on the formation of BemroseBooth Systems.