St Ives plans changes at Bradford

St Ives is in consultation with the workforce at its St Ives Direct site in Bradford about outsourcing the enclosing side of the operation.

The group recently consolidated its Leeds and Bradford direct mail facilities at Bradford.

Around 70-75 jobs out of a total of 265 at the facility are potentially at risk.

Chief executive Patrick Martell said: "We intend to carry on printing at Bradford but we don’t believe there is enough volume in enclosing to do it profitably.

"We are in discussions that may or may not lead to job losses."

The group didn’t move all of the enclosing machines originally located at Leeds when it consolidated the two sites.

Martell said that while overall volumes for direct mail were declining, the medium remained attractive. "We don’t think it’s going to disappear altogether, there’s just less of it. There’s a good market for added-value direct mail such as multi-channel campaigns that drive online interaction."

The Bradford facility typically operates seven days. The print side includes web, sheetfed and digital print kit.

It runs two 32pp short-grain Manroland Lithoman web presses with inline finishing, a B1 Komori SP40 double-decker sheetfed perfecting press, a Roland 700 and two HP Indigo digital presses.

It has produced campaigns for major brands including Google, Vodafone, RBS and Ford.

As well as direct mail, the site also produces commercial print such as brochures and catalogues.

The £330m turnover group is approaching its financial year-end. The consultation process could take up to 45 days.