RR Donnelley UK is to lose up to 40 of its 370 staff in
a 30m restructure to cater for Yellow Pages switch to four-colour.
The staff are to go from the press hall, said human resources manager Martin Tilstone. Investment in faster binding lines and presses wont affect the supervisory and management roles within the company. We are offering an attractive redundancy package and hope that all redundancies will be voluntary.
He said non-renewal of pre-press department contracts would also bring staff numbers down.
The first of the companys four MAN Roland Uniset single-stream tower presses is under construction, with plans to have it printing the Bournemouth and Dundee Yellow Pages in October. One more Uniset will come online each month until all are running early in 2001.
Donnelley has added a manual CreoScitex Trendsetter to its existing Platesetter VLF, with both linked to Dalim Twist and Litho software.
A Goss Universal press and a sheetfed machine will be transferred to the new Knaresborough site from the York factory, which will close in the new year. Four older presses will be disposed of, or else transferred to other Donnelley sites internationally.
Up to 30 extra staff will be taken on over Christmas, bringing the total to around 400, while operations are being transferred and both sites are running. According to Tilstone, new staff will be hired before the redundancies have taken effect.
Story by Creina Lilburne