Polestar deals still unconfirmed

There is no news yet on the future of Polestar Bicester as administrators from PricewaterhouseCooper decide on competing bids for the site.

PwC is understood to be considering offers for the Oxfordshire site, which went into administration on 25 April, from Wyndeham Group owner Walstead and YM Group.

The latter is also expected to confirm completion in the coming days of a deal to save Polestar’s Chantry site along with more than 150 jobs, after workers agreed to new terms and conditions

PrintWeek understands that the last shift finished work at Polestar Sheffield's web offset facility yesterday afternoon (31 May). YM Group has expressed an interest in the 64pp short-grain web from the 20,000sqm site, which also houses two long-grain 96pp Goss web offset presses.

It is also understood that Polestar Sheffield’s gravure operation ceased over the bank holiday weekend. PwC has confirmed that both sites have now closed down with a small team remaining on site to decommission kit. 

The decision by PwC to close both sides of the Sheffield operation has resulted in 98 redundancies from the web offset site and 450 from the gravure business.