New name for St Ives Bradford

St Ives Bradford has been re-branded as Global Media Production under new owner Cogent B2B.

The new name was communicated to clients and suppliers this week.

The St Ives Direct limited company has been renamed Global MP, and will trade as Global Media Production.

The firm has also appointed former KPMG senior partner Neil Armour as a non-executive director at parent Cogent B2B, which acquired the Bradford business from St Ives in September in an £8m deal.

Chief executive Kevin Dunstall said the £35m turnover, 180-employee business had performed positively in Q1.

He told PrintWeek: “Q2 looks very similar. I’m pleasantly surprised and happy.”

Dunstall put Prospect Mailing Services, one of his other businesses, into administration last week. Although he declined to comment in detail about the decision, he said it should not be a cause of concern for clients and suppliers of Global Media Production.

“It should make them less nervous, because it’s less of a drain on the business,” he stated. “We have to work with our suppliers and customers to make sure they are well-informed and up-to-date, and we are doing that.”

Dunstall also said he was “quite confident” about his working capital position, having taken over a much larger business. “We have some very good advisers. I’m quite confident about it at the moment. Working capital is any business’ biggest challenge, and ours is no different.”

Global MP has a 30-month preferred supplier deal with St Ives following the buyout, and PrintWeek understands the firm has also secured a multi-million pound contract with a large UK retailer.

The Bradford facility encompasses web offset, sheetfed, and digital printing as well as mailing and fulfilment.

Prospect’s administrator SFG Group was unable to provide an update on the situation at that company at the time of writing.