London, - Following the insolvent collapse of Goodhead and the subsequent acquisition of its business and assets by Polestar Group (owned by Sun European Partners), Mark Scanlon, chairman of Walstead Investments which owns Wyndeham Group, commented:

"There are lessons for us all in the demise of Goodhead: for investors, printers, customers and workforce. You cannot survive in any industry unless you charge a sensible price for the work produced. We have been warning for some time that chasing unprofitable volume to fill surplus capacity created by inopportune investment would only end in disaster. Now it has. Goodhead's sudden collapse demonstrates that in the end the economics of profit and loss will prevail.

"Walstead welcomes the prompt sale of Goodhead's assets to Polestar. Its customers will have been extremely concerned about whether their magazines, catalogues and directories would continue to be printed. We assume Sun will be looking to make a satisfactory return on its investment. This marks another important stage in the rebalancing of supply in the web offset sector to address a shrinking market. I have no doubt the contraction will continue. In response, the supply side will polarise: the remaining two large multi-site groups - Wyndeham and Polestar - will be able to provide resilient and long-term service for publishers and print buyers; the middle-size operators will flounder; and the smaller players will specialise."