This was the companys third consecutive year in the red and the loss increased by 83% on the same period in the previous year.

Cradley has undergone considerable restructuring in the past 12-18 months, leading to a reduction in staff from 474 to 320 staff. We took some difficult medicine as we pushed forward, Wheatley said.

The companys end of year results had been withheld until now in order to show the improvement that had been seen in the business at present, Wheatley explained.

He claimed commercial print had considerably improved in the first four months of the current financial year and the company had won a number of new contracts. It had also returned to profitability with a strong cash flow in the past two months, Wheatley said.

Turnover for the year was down 15% to 24.2m, while pre-tax losses of 2.6m for the period rose 57% on 2002. The loss includes exceptional charges of 397,000 relating to the cost of the reorganisation of the business and redundancies.

Wheatley added that although the business had instigated a continuous improvement programme to reduce costs, overheads had now been reduced to an appropriate level for the current market and customer levels.

We are aiming to be a company that provides good service levels and doesnt just chase after the cheap work, he said.

Story by Andy Scott