Chairman Miles Emley (pictured) said the group continued to experience "overcapacity and severe pricing pressure" in most of its markets and that it would continue to focus on those markets with a high service requirement. "We continue to invest to reduce costs of production and to extend our range of services," he said.
St Ives is on course to invest 45m this year, said finance director Ray Morley. Around 20m has been spent in the first half of the year, including 4.6m on property. In addition, it bought a 32pp Goss M600 for Plymouth and ordered a 32pp MAN Roland Lithoman for its Direct site in Bradford.
Simon Ward, joint chief executive of St Ives' point-of-sale arm SP Group and head of the new St Ives Group sales operation, went to Ipex to sign a deal for a five-unit KBA Rapida 205 sheetfed press. A new Timson web was also acquired for book arm Clays.
Assuming the recent offers for Fulmar and Wyndeham (from book group CPI and Icelandic investor Dagsbrn, respectively) go through, St Ives will be just one of two print plcs left with a full stock market listing. The other is Communisis.
Managing director Brian Edwards shrugged off suggestions from industry watchers that it would have made sense for St Ives to launch a bid for Wyndeham. "If we thought that we would have done it," he said.
Emley said the group was in as strong a position as it had ever been in books. "I don't think the combination of Fulmar and CPI will make life any more difficult," he said.
