Bemrose Booth goes into administration

Declining profitability in saturated market causes printing company to call in administrators

The company has suffered from the over-capacity prevailing in the printing market

Bemrose Booth, a specialist printing company based in England, has gone into administration.

The company was the largest supplier of car parking tickets in the UK, with high-profile customers such as NCP. It also manufactured rail tickets and revealed plans to invest in new technologies such as RFID and SMART to increase its expertise in the ticketing arena.

It has suffered from the over-capacity prevailing in the printing market, much like other large companies in this field, according to insolvency practitioner David Rubin and Partners LLP in London. Two of the firm’s partners have been appointed joint administrators for Bemrose Booth.

The company’s woes have been fuelled by declining profitability in fields such as scratchcards for the telecoms industry, where markets and production have moved to developing nations as production costs are much lower.

Its calendar business, based in Derby, has also been hit by declining margins in the promotional products and secure mail businesses. Production issues with the business led to those parts of the company being closed last week, resulting in 160 redundancies. A further 26 redundancies in Hull followed the decision to stop producing telecom scratchcards in Hull, according to David Rubin and Partners LLP.

“The emphasis now is on saving those viable parts of the business and preserving the jobs of the remaining workforce,” said David Rubin, joint administrator.

“We are dealing with a high-quality and profitable operation and are confident that a sale can be achieved. Everybody concerned has a part to play in achieving that."

The company operated two sites in Derby, one in Hull and another in Teesside. It employed about 650 staff two years ago but reduced its headcount to 350 in the past 12 months.

The remaining divisions in Hull, where 125 people are employed, and the operation in Teesside, which employs 34 people, are trading normally while bu yers are sought for the business as a going concern. A significant level of interest has been expressed in the business and talks with a number of interested parties are ongoing.