Goodhead staff await 'serious' announcement

The group’s owner Sir John Madejski wrote to all employees of the business last week, saying that "a very important announcement regarding the future of our business" would be made on the morning of 5 January.

Back-to-back briefings are planned at Stones the Printers, BGP, and the Buckingham bindery site.

Sir John’s letter describes the announcement as "serious" and suggests staff members may wish to change their existing plans in order to attend if they were not already scheduled to be on-site.

Industry speculation is rife about the nature of tomorrow’s announcement. It's understood that the announcement will be made by chief executive David Holland and other board members, and not by Sir John himself. However, when contacted by PrintWeek, Holland played down the importance of tomorrow's statement, and said: "I'm not used to my employee briefings attracting so much attention."

He added that the strategic direction of the group was "unchanged".

Sir John has ploughed tens of millions of pounds of his personal fortune into the business over the past five years. In its latest results the £68.5m turnover group posted a pre-tax loss of £9.7m, mostly due to losses at web offset wing BGP.

At the time Holland said the group retained Madejski’s full support, and added: "Breakeven is anticipated in the current quarter. We are getting out of these horrendous numbers."