St Ives sells Dutch multimedia division following 'subdued' demand

St Ives has agreed to dispose of St Ives Uden, its loss-making Dutch music and multimedia business, to an MBO team following a fall in profitability at the company in the face of rising music downloads.

The €2.8m consideration (£2.1m) represents a discount on its book value of €5.6m, following a €900,000 loss for the 53 weeks to 3 August 2008.

The print giant said that demand for products supplied by the division had been "subdued" for some time.

Finance director Matt Armitage said the move was in response to the declining markets for CD inlet production.

"Sales of CDs have been in decline for some time," he said. "This resulted in a position where it was no longer feasible to have a stand-alone site in the Netherlands."

The company will continue to supply music and multimedia products within the UK from its existing UK operations, which operate under the St Ives Direct brand.

Armitage said the company remained a "very strong player in the UK general multimedia market".
The group's multimedia business provides CD and DVD booklets and inlays, and a wide range of specialist board packaging to the movie, music and computer games industries.