Cradley is disappointed with its results for the year to 30 June and its problems have been compounded by cancellations for a significant amount of autumn work, particularly in the holiday sector, after the 11 September attacks.

Sales for the year rose 8.4% to 30.6m, which was satisfactory considering adverse market conditions.

But pre-tax losses hit 1.07m. Cradley took retraining costs of around 260,000, primarily within the pre-press department, so that staff could move into other areas of the business

It was also hit by costs of 150,000 relating to redundancies, which have been done on a voluntary basis so far. The group aims to reduce the number of pre-press planning staff to reflect its move to digital workflow, which it hopes will account for 100%, up from its current 80%, during the next year.

Cradley has also made a 220,000 provision for doubtful debts bearing in mind the current position of this industry.

And it has written off 372,000 after stopping its SAP development in February due to the inability of the product to be able to handle our requirements. The matter has been passed to the groups solicitors and it hopes to resolve it within the next year.

During the year Cradley Digital Imaging launched AdLive, an advert database product, and it expects to have several installations running in the coming year.

Cradley Print installed a six-unit Komori Lithrone 40 in March and a 1.5m perfect binder in January.
Psyche Solutions, the groups web development arm, is trading profitably after losing money last year.

Focus groups have been set up throughout Cradley, with all staff involved, to look at areas of cost and efficiency.