PricewaterhouseCoopers has made 15% of Dudley Stationerys staff redundant after being appointed as administrator.

The management of Dudley placed two of the Bow-based companies, Dudley Stationery and Dudley UK, into administration to protect them while a rescue package is sought.

A statement from PricewaterhouseCoopers partners and joint administrators Bob Bailey and Anthony Lomas said: "Regrettably, as part of the necessary cost savings associated with a restructure of the business, 90 of the 600-strong workforce were made redundant on 2 October."

The company has stressed that it is not in liquidation or receivership and it intends to provide an on-going service.

The firm said: "This action has been taken to provide the company with protection from its creditors while enabling the administrators to continue to trade the business."

The administrators said that they were working on a financial restructuring plan and were confident that the business and Dudley brand would be preserved.

In the past 12 months Dudley UK has four County Court judgements recorded against it for a total of 34,422, while Dudley Stationery has six judgements amounting to 4,907.

Dudley Stationery has its main distribution centre in East London but has regional offices at Ashford, Barnsley, Birmingham, Burnley, Cambridge, Epsom, Gloucester, Luton and Norwich.

Last year Dudley Stationery was ranked 13 in PrintWeeks Top 500. In 1999 the firm recorded a pre-tax loss of 38.3m on a turnover of 189.9m.

Dudley Stationerys directors include Warren Feldberg, Frederic Brient, David Crewe and ex-Hunterprint chief executive Tony Caplin.

The firm has three Royal warrants and supplies across the spectrum of office products.

Story by John Davies