Approximately 145 jobs are at risk at Wyndeham Plymouth (formerly St Ives Plymouth) as consolidation in the web offset market continues apace.

Staff at the site, which made a £3m pre-tax loss on revenue of £20.2m last year, were told that they were entering into a 90-day consultation on Tuesday morning (24 May), with the plant expected to close on 22 August.

The move marks Walstead’s first step towards rationalising its production facilities following its St Ives Web purchase and continues the industry-wide reduction in web offset capacity.

Wyndeham Group chief executive Paul Utting said: "Our industry is trying to match capacity in the market with demand, so we will look to decommission our least modern equipment.

"That’s the logic behind Plymouth, which had three 32pp presses, only two of which were being run consistently. The third was run very occasionally and not at all recently."

Utting declined to comment on Walstead’s plans for any of its other sites, although he confirmed that there were "likely to be other changes", including the move of a Corona binder from Poole-based Southernprint to Wyndeham Heron, in Maldon.

"We took two presses out of [Southernprint] earlier this year, so the decision reduces the binding capacity to match the print capacity."

Utting said that work from Plymouth could be moved to other group sites, such as Wyndeham Roche, formerly St Ives Roche, which has a 64pp press, while any surplus plant would normally be sold to overseas buyers.

An employee at the Plymouth site told PrintWeek: "A few people guessed what was coming; we were being given days off, eating up hours in lieu. We were told that because we didn’t have 64-page capacity we were at a disadvantage, but it has come as quite a shock."

The acceleration in web offset consolidation in the first half of the year is the result of the significant and ongoing hikes in energy and raw material costs, in addition to the sector’s overcapacity problem.

"The rise in raw material costs is making it even more difficult for marginal sites to remain viable," said Utting.

"I think what’s happened in the market this year, with Polestar’s recent restructuring and with St Ives putting their hands up and exiting the market, is a real sign that even the largest companies can’t make this work at the moment."