The industry has reacted incredulously to news of the pay-offs given to Tony Rudston at the time of the BPC/Watmoughs merger and when he "retired" as chief executive of Polestar in May last year.


Rudston received "compensation for loss of office" amounting to almost 1.9m, including payments into a funded unapproved retirement scheme established for him.


Polestars Form F-20, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, also revealed that BPC paid bonuses and notional options of over 4m to certain directors on completion of BPCs acquisition by Polestar during the financial period 1 January to 19 June 1998.


Of this, Rudston received 1.75m in addition to a further 747,400 in a funded unapproved retirement benefit scheme.


GPMU deputy general secretary Tony Burke said the pay-offs were "little short of immoral".


"Rudstons time at Polestar was a disaster and our relationship with the UKs biggest print group sank to an all time low," he said.


"It was during his time that Polestar mounted attacks on the wages of some of our lowest paid members and we lost three times as many jobs than Polestar had told the DTI they would lose following the creation of the new company.


"When you look at the money he made from the merger, its no wonder he wanted it so badly."


But Burke did say that the unions relationship with Polestar had "stabilised" since Rudstons departure and that there was now "regular dialogue" with the groups senior directors.


Some of the UKs major print bosses also expressed shock at the amount Rudston received.


Polestar has also appointed external advisers to "evaluate future strategy and seek appropriate purchasers" for its non-core packaging and mono sheetfed printing operations.


It said it expected the disposals to have a "minimum profit impact". These businesses account for around 12% of turnover.


Sales in the UK packaging division fell by over 7% to 45.8m last year, and it recorded a 200,000 net loss.


Story by Gordon Carson