On Friday Printweek revealed that the Leeds-headquartered group had put its three ‘web division’ sites – York Mailing in York, Pindar in Scarborough, and YM Chantry in Wakefield – up for sale and had filed NOIs (notice of intention to appoint administrators) for the respective limited companies.
A source close to the company told Printweek that workers at Chantry who are paid weekly were paid on Friday.
Printweek has also seen a company announcement YM issued to employees at Chantry last week, which said: “It is the intention of the company to put all web offset facilities into administration. TLG [Lettershop] will be kept under the YM Group.
“We do have potential buyers and that interest is with Walstead Group, however nothing has been confirmed as yet although they are looking at a timeframe of 31 March 2022.”
The announcement continued: “We ask that during this difficult time that all employees continue to work with a business as usual approach and ensure our customers are looked after.
“We can confirm that everyone will be paid as usual at the end of March and this will include all overtime worked.”
The announcement was not attributed to any of YM’s board members.
Printweek understands the memo was subsequently withdrawn, but staff at other sites were informed verbally that they would be paid.
Walstead Group has not commented on its potential interest in any of the YM sites, and is likely to be subject to customary non-disclosure agreements regarding the sale process, which is being run by FRP Advisory.
A source close to the situation said: “We are hearing that Walstead are interested in York Mailing and Pindar, but nobody wants Chantry. So where’s DMG going to go?”
YM acquired the Chantry site and assets from Polestar’s administrators in a £2m deal in June 2016. Three months later YM also bought the 64pp Goss M5000 short-grain press from Polestar’s shuttered Sheffield site, which was then moved to Chantry.
Another industry source said that some customers had been informed that YM would be unable to print their jobs due to “a shortage of consumables”.
At least one of the sites is understood to be close to running out of ink.
Customers with weekly publications and supplements being produced at YM include Daily Mail publisher DMG Media, Guardian News & Media, Bauer Media, and Reach.
The group also prints for contract publishers and major brands that use catalogues as part of a multi-channel sales strategy, including Boden.
In the financial year to 31 May 2020 Pindar had sales of £55.3m and made an operating profit prior to exceptionals of £613k. The site employed 274.
York Mailing had sales of just over £26m, and made an operating profit of £2m, with 108 staff.
YM Chantry employed 236 at the time, and made an operating loss of £1.9m on sales of £26.8m.
