Adare Guildford to remain open

Adare SEC's Guildford operation, which was due to close this week, is now to remain open as a client services site as production continues its relocation to Nottingham.

Closure of the 49-staff Guildford site, which Adare picked up when it acquired Banner Managed Communication (BMC) last year, was initially announced in April and slated to be completed by tomorrow (31 October), with all production moved to Nottingham. 

However, Adare SEC chief operating officer Barry Crich said the move of production will now be completed by Christmas due to a high volume of work at both the Guildford and Nottingham sites. 

Rather than closing altogether, the Guildford site will now remain open, with a “small number” of staff staying on in IT and client services, according to Crich, and a “small number” relocating to the 86-staff Nottingham site.

Around 30 redundancies are expected, five fewer than forecast when Adare announced the closure and entered into a collective consultation process.

Adare took on the Nottingham site when it acquired Polestar Applied Solutions just 10 weeks after acquiring BMC, giving itself a base in the East Midlands for the first time.

Last December, it initiated an upgrade at the site following a circa-£3m investment in Canon equipment, installed in the new year, and it recently bought in a Xerox Nuvera 144 to the site as part of a wider machinery upgrade to its Huddersfield and Redditch sites.

Adare SEC is now a standalone entity, having been separated from Adare International when the Adare Group was dissolved on 31 July. Headed up by newly appointed chief executive Richard Slee, the 600-staff operation is targeted for £75m sales by the end of the year.