In a statement today Tony Lord, President of Flint Group’s Commercial Publication Web division, announced the potential closure of its newspaper ink facility at Old Heath Road, Wolverhampton, later this summer with up to 63 employees affected. Mr. Lord said "it is with deep regret we make this announcement, possibly ending the long standing manufacture of newspaper ink at the Wolverhampton facility. This is entirely as a consequence of the accelerating move towards on-line news content in the UK and elsewhere, which has resulted in a significant reduction in the circulation of newspapers and resulting demand for newspaper printing ink to such a level, where it is currently deemed no longer viable to maintain a facility within the UK. Mr. Lord continued "the Wolverhampton facility has an exemplary workforce and as such every possible avenue will be explored to try and retain the bespoke newspaper ink manufacturing site to supply the UK newspaper market, but sadly we have to recognise the collapse in demand for newspaper ink, with no realistic prospect of this changing in the foreseeable future. We therefore have no alternative other than to consider ceasing manufacture within the UK later this summer.”

Flint CPS Inks UK Limited is now entering into a formal consultation process with its employees and their representatives to explore alternatives to site closure, redundancies or ways to mitigate the impact of redundancies whilst ensuring that this very difficult situation is handled with the least disruption possible to the committed workforce.