Adare proposes Guildford closure

Adare SEC (Secure Essential Communications) looks set to relocate its production operation in Guildford to the Nottingham site it acquired last year, putting at least 35 jobs at risk.

Adare SEC took on the Guildford site following its acquisition of Banner Managed Communication (BMC) in May 2016, with BMC's Hinckley, Swindon and London offices taken on by Adare International. BMC has now been fully integrated within the Adare Group.  

10 weeks after the Banner acquisition, Adare also acquired Nottingham-based Polestar Applied Solutions, which gave the £250m-turnover group a base in the East Midlands. 

According to Adare SEC managing director Barry Crich, the proposal is "highly likely" to be implemented and a “collective consultation process” for the 49 staff at Guildford will begin shortly, with 35 jobs at risk. 86 staff are employed at Nottingham and there is capacity to bring that up to 100.

“Assuming the proposal goes ahead there are likely to be some redundancies and in this case we will provide assistance to those affected to help them find alternative employment, with some roles available at the Nottingham site,” said Crich.

“We settled on this decision early on this year after a very detailed evaluation process. It will enable the Guildford customers to benefit from the full Adare SEC central communications proposition, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, plus the dual site capability with the Huddersfield site.”

The proposal involves plans to migrate the Guildford kit, which comprises two Xerox iGen 150 digital presses, two light-production Xerox cut-sheet machines and a Pitney Bowes enclosing line, to Nottingham.

Last December, the Nottingham site was upgraded following a circa-£3m investment, which included a new Canon Océ ColorStream 3900Z, an upgrade of an existing Océ ColorStream 3700 to 3900 specifications, a Tecnau Dynamic Perforator and software enhancements. The kit went live in the early part of this year.

Adare plans on making a further investment once the proposal is officially taken up, which will involve a premises extension to accommodate the extra machinery and an investment in postal sortation kit to mirror the Huddersfield site. 

The Huddersfield site is fully equipped with Ricoh kit, after a £3.3m spend made at Drupa last year.

Adare SEC accounts for around one third of the Adare Group's overall turnover. It employs 520 permanent staff and has an additional site in Redditch.