Pricoa became YM’s major backer after the 2015 MBO led by Stephen Goodman, who became CEO after a transition period.
Goodman had joined the then-York Mailing business in 2014 as CFO.
Pricoa is owed £32.5m in two separate tranches of loan notes, according to £114.8m-turnover YM’s accounts for the year ending 31 May 2020, the most recent available.
The redemption date for £19m in Pricoa’s senior loan notes had been pushed back by a year, to September 2022. The interest rate on the notes was 11%, charged quarterly.
The investor is also understood to have propped the business up with further cash injections over the past year.
YM’s former owners Chris Ingram (currently chairman) and Mike Newbould Junior are believed to be owed £10m-plus and £7m, respectively.
A source close to the situation said Pricoa had put in an additional £13m since last summer, including picking up February’s wage bill as the cash crisis across the group mounted.
Turnaround specialist Stephen Smith of Icknield consulting was also appointed as a non-executive director of YM Group in June 2021, via Pricoa.
It’s not clear why Pricoa suddenly ceased any further support this month, leaving workers at YM Chantry, York Mailing, and Pindar Scarborough without their promised wages and overtime payments.
One seasoned industry boss commented: “This is actually worse than when Polestar went down. At least Proventus covered the wages then.”
Ed Jolly, managing director of Pricoa’s London-based corporate finance office, had not responded to Printweek’s request for comment at the time of writing.
Goodman has not commented either.
YM Chantry in Wakefield, Pindar Scarborough and York Mailing went into administration with FRP Advisory yesterday (31 March), with most staff made redundant immediately.
YM Group, Lettershop in Leeds, and Go Direct Marketing are not part of the administration.
A source close to Chantry told Printweek that group managing director Peter Greaves had made a brief appearance at the site yesterday, and told workers that he had also been made redundant from his role.
A YM employee who was among the more than 500 workers laid off said: “It was in free fall and without the odd cash injection from Pricoa we would have been in this position long ago.
“Pre-Covid it was the same but furlough payments saved them.”
The former employee added: “One thing that can be pulled from such a shameful ending is, the workforce at Chantry ensured that the DMG titles and TV Choice were out on time for the last issues we printed. They can hold their heads high as we have had no senior management input or direction. Above shift manager level no one was involved.”
The three sites printed for a range of publishing and commercial customers, including time-sensitive weeklies for Bauer Media, Daily Mail publisher DMG Media, Guardian News & Media, Reach and the BMJ.
A Guardian News & Media spokesperson told Printweek: "We are aware of the latest developments and have well-laid contingency plans in place around our print operations and other areas of our production business.
“Guardian readers and our valued retail partners should expect to see our newspapers and supplements delivered as normal.”
Reach will print Notebook, We Love TV, Saturday Mag and S Mag internally on its coldset presses from next week, while New! is moving to Walstead.
DMG Media, Bauer Media and the BMJ had not responded regarding their future plans at the time of writing.
If the YM web factories and equipment remain shuttered it will leave a void in the high-capacity web offset market in the UK. Beyond Walstead’s multiple 64pp and 72pp web presses across three sites, the next largest web press is the 48pp Lithoman at Vanacomm (formerly GD Web Offset) in Rotherham.
