HighWater Designs has cut staff by eight at its UK headquarters in Cheltenham in a reorganisation to focus more on sales and marketing.
Among those departing is operations director Richard Jenkins, who has resigned. The other seven departures, which were mostly in research and development, were a mix of voluntary and compulsory redundancies.
"We very much regret having to make any cuts at all, its the first time in our 13 years existence," said managing director Richard Warren. "Its a sign of the competitive nature of the industry, its difficult but we have to look to streamline for the future. Were now a leaner, fitter and stronger company in a position to forge ahead."
The firm has cut R&D staff from 22 to 17 out of a total of 50. Despite the cut in development staff Warren said: "We are a product development firm and will remain so." Some of the departures were linked to the completion of product development undertaken for Drupa.
"The strategy was to develop and launch products for Drupa including the violet diode Platinum," he said. "We still have staff to develop future products and will focus on workflow."
At the show HighWater and Heidelberg announced that Hiedelberg would market HighWaters Platinum 2218 B3 metal platesetter to customers of its smaller format presses.
"Weve developed a good relationship with Heidelberg especially in the UK, " sais Warren. The sales agreement for the UK has already been agreed, separate agreements with other Heidelberg sales units are under discussion.
So far there have been five orders in the UK. The first Unit in the UK, using a green laser has been shipped with blue diode machines set to ship at the end of the month. The blue machines have been slightly delayed while waiting for a suitable plate processor, but the firm is working with PTE on a suitable unit.
Story by Barney Cox