Hundreds of staff made redundant at Scarborough's historic printing company Pindar as firm goes into administration

Hundreds of staff have been made redundant at one of Scarborough's best-known companies after it fell into administration this morning.
Hundreds of staff found out they had been made redundant at Scarborough printing firm Pindar.Hundreds of staff found out they had been made redundant at Scarborough printing firm Pindar.
Hundreds of staff found out they had been made redundant at Scarborough printing firm Pindar.

Specialist corporate restructuring company FRP Advisory has been appointed at YM Group's Pindar (Scarborough) Ltd in Eastfield, YM Chantry Ltd in Wakefield and York Mailing Ltd in York.

All operations at the sites have ceased and all of the company's staff have been sent home and made redundant.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Phil Pierce and Philip Watkins, partners at FRP, were appointed as joint administrators after a "period of challenging trading that had been exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic and rising prices".

The three company subsidiaries have ceased operations.The three company subsidiaries have ceased operations.
The three company subsidiaries have ceased operations.

Without the prospect of an investor or a sale, the three companies have ceased to operate and the majority of its 512 staff have been made redundant with a small number retained to assist administrators.

An accelerated marketing process in recent weeks failed to secure a buyer, the administrators said.

Phil Pierce, partner at FRP Advisory, said: "This has been an incredibly challenging period for the printing sector and York Mailing, YM Chantry and Pindar are no longer able to continue trading.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"Regrettably, the insolvency has led to redundancies at what we know will be an extremely difficult time. We will work with staff to access redundancy support."

Pindar House on the industrial estate at Eastfield has ceased all operations.Pindar House on the industrial estate at Eastfield has ceased all operations.
Pindar House on the industrial estate at Eastfield has ceased all operations.

The joint administrators will now make asset disposals, while supporting impacted staff in making claims to the Redundancy Payments Services.

YM Group filed Notices of Intention (NOI) at the High Court on Friday March 25 to appoint administrators for its subsidiaries Pindar (Scarborough) Ltd in Eastfield, YM Chantry Ltd in Wakefield and York Mailing Ltd in York.

The company's CEO Stephen Goodman told trade press Printweek that it was by no means certain that administrators would actually be appointed and that the NOI was purely "procedural".

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

When contacted by The Scarborough News on Tuesday, a YM Group spokesperson said that the companies are "up for sale", but that it is "business as usual".

Nobody was available for comment when The Scarborough News contacted YM Group and Pindar earlier today.

In its most recent accounts for the financial year to May 31 2020, Pindar had sales of £55.3m and made an operating profit of £613,000 while employing 274 staff.

Post-tax profit fell to £155,000 from £1.3m in 2019, which was due to the coronavirus pandemic, the company said.

Pindar's History

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Dating back to 1836, Pindar was a family-run business that had owned it for four generations.

It is best known for its printing and mailing of high-quality colour-critical catalogues.

In early July 2011, the then-Director Andrew Pindar put its UK printing business up for sale after struggling in the web offset sector.

By late July Pindar entered administration and the Scarborough site was sold to YM Group.

This is a breaking news story and updates will be made available in due course.

Related topics: