Andrew Hook and Julie Anne Palmer of Begbies Traynor (Central) were appointed administrators of Wells Printing on 21 December. The deal, inked on the same day, saw Dorset-based Remous Group take the struggling litho firm on through the newly-created company Wells Creative Ltd.
The administrators explained that Bath-based Wells Printing had begun to experience difficulties during the pandemic, when it had taken out two CBILS loan agreements to help with cashflow.
Following the pandemic, with increasing energy prices and wider inflation besides, the company’s costs increased dramatically and cut into Wells Printing’s cashflow, until the directors felt obliged to appoint administrators.
Five staff have been taken on by Wells Creative under TUPE, with several other employees moving on or retiring according to Remous managing director, Alan Bunter.
He told Printweek that he would keep Wells Creative as a separate entity to Remous, and work to give it a lasting future.
He said: “They’re another family business, and everybody’s seeing challenging times out there.
“They have a lot of synergies with us, in how they work and how they treat their clients: they strive for good quality work.
“[Wells Printing] has been going a long time, same as we have, and it soon became apparent that we could work really well together.”
Remous, which has an in-house design studio and offers digital print alongside litho, can neatly supplement Wells Creative’s offering to clients, Bunter said.
Remous can supply clients where Wells Printing had to outsource its digital work and design, and will likewise in the future take on Wells Creative’s litho work – the firm will eventually sell its Heidelberg press – but Bunter said that for now the focus would be on getting Wells Creative up and running.
“Wells is very much a commercial printer, and they have a great sales team – one of their real strengths is customer care, and guiding clients through the printing process,” Bunter added.
Staff will remain on site near Bath, with the Heidelberg press continuing to run for the time being.
“We both want to put the clients’ needs first to produce top quality work on time. There should be as little change as possible from the clients’ perspective – there will just be extra products that [Wells Creative] will be able to offer.”
