News

Heidelberg is set to close its Leeds site with the loss of 20 jobs as part of a UK-wide restructuring plan designed to reposition the company and "set it up for the next stage of development".

From early next year, the UK arm of the German press manufacturer will consolidate its three sites into two: Tamworth in the West Mid­lands and its UK headquarters in Brent­­ford, London.

George Clarke, managing director of Heidelberg UK, said that while current market conditions cannot be ignored, the decision was not a knee-jerk reaction, but a reflection of the changing face of the UK print industry.

He said: "The print market has contracted since the three UK divisions were created in 1975. Then, there were 14,000 potential customers, today there are 3,500."

The decision to close Leeds came shortly after the closure of the site’s showroom, which occurred after Drupa.

The manufacturing giant, which employs 433 people in the UK, said it expected the move to be completed by April 2009 and that staffing levels would be reduced by up to 20 through a combination of redundancies and early retirements.

Clarke said: "Although we have a programme of relocation and redeployment, there will be some redundancies and early retirements."

However, there are no plans to reduce field service numbers, as these employees are mainly home-based.

As a result of the restructure, Heidelberg’s northern division in Tamworth will service the Midlands to Scotland, as well as Northern Ireland and North Wales. In addition to its present remit, the southern division, based in Brentford, will cover the south west of England and South Wales.

Mark Summers and Andy Rae will continue to head up the north and south divisions respectively.

The reshuffle comes as the company switches to its new Business Oriented Software Solu­tion (BOSS) IT system, designed to improve round-the-clock remote service coverage.

Clarke said: "Offering a good service is and always will be our biggest priority. We feel that we already do it well, but we want to do it better."

HEIDELBERG RESTRUCTURE
• UK consolidation from three sites to two
• Leeds expected to close in April 2009
• 20 job losses through redundancies and early retirements
• Mark Summers to head northern division, Andy Rae to head southern division
• Introduction of new BOSS IT system