UK employees escape Bowne cutbacks

UK jobs at financial printer Bowne appear safe, despite the US-based companys announcement of 200 more redundancies.

The 2.5% reduction in workforce, primarily within its Financial Print division, is intended to save £6.4m ($10m) a year, and will shift its emphasis from transactional print to more managed document services.

This is the second round of redundancies and reorganisation, after £39m was cut from financial print overheads last year. But according to Bowne International European sales director Tom Siedzik, it will have "minimal effect" in the UK.

Bowne International, which includes London Financial Print, went through a "heavy" 25% downsizing last November with 52 redundancies.

The news came as Burrups, the financial print subsidiary of St Ives, announced 13 redundancies, citing the "continued deterioration of business conditions within the corporate financial print market" as the cause.

Burrups UK deputy divisional director Chris Cartwright said: "It will be several years before this market segment really picks up, but we’re not expecting the situation to get any worse."

Story by Rachel Barnes