Bousfield is to cut around 40 jobs from its 180-strong workforce.

The Bristol-based inks, pressroom chemicals and pre-press equipment supplier announced the news to employees last Friday (14 September).

The firm said a six-week process would now begin, with voluntary redundancies encouraged in the first instance.

A spokesman attributed the cuts to the present economic climate and said they would be made across the board from all parts of the business.

Bousfield is following a tight finance programme following the appointment of new finance director John Paul at the beginning of the month (PrintWeek, 14 September).

The firm has been hit by a significant downturn in sales and suffered a string of bad debts last year, and Paul has pledged to implement a tight finance programme including a rationalisation of the firms customer base.

In July, Bousfield created three major customer service centres and closed three branches in a move that it claimed would enhance product quality and service for customers (PrintWeek, 20 July).

Paul told PrintWeek last week that no more closures were planned, but would not comment on the prospect of redundancies at the time.

* Bousfield said it was mounting its biggest ever push into the web offset market following the opening of its three new customer service centres in Swanley, Leeds and Bristol in July. It is using a full-colour mailer to highlight its offerings to that sector.

Story by Fay Schopen