Wyndeham Group announced today that it has entered into a  30-day  consultation process with employees at its Wyndeham Heron web offset printing subsidiary in Essex. The proposal is to make  86 redundancies that will affect the press room, bindery, engineering, stores, and line management departments.

Paul Utting, Wyndeham Group s Chief Executive Officer, said: Since the restructuring programme we implemented at Wyndeham Heron in 2008, the UK economy has continued to deteriorate and the company s operating margins have suffered as a result. In addition, whilst market prices have increased marginally in the past year this has not been sufficient to offset the  significant increases in raw materials and rising utility costs. These factors have had a significant negative impact on the financial performance of the business.

"This consultation process will also address our need to improve the utilisation of the reduced range of equipment operated at the site following the fire damage to the Manroland Lithoman IV 72pp printing press in July 2011. Despite the loss of this press, we have continued to meet all of our customers schedules and intend to do so as a result of these proposed changes.  With market volumes expected to continue decreasing and the uncertainty surrounding Manroland's future, it is unlikely we will repair or replace this machine for the time being. Therefore, we have no option other than to reduce Wyndeham Heron s cost base in order to ensure the business achieves adequate and sustainable levels of profit and cash flow."