Butler and Tanner Printers in receivership

Butler and Tanner Printers, which has produced hardback books for Jamie Oliver, Delia Smith and Nigella Lawson, is to go into receivership.

The company, based in Somerset, has informed all 287 workers, by letter, that they will be made redundant with immediate effect.

The letter said the company was unable to invoice sufficient work to pay this month’s wages and that strict security had been imposed at the site.

Parent company, private equity investor Media & Print Investments Plc (MPI), said the union’s failure to resolve working practices meant finances had been withdrawn. Butler & Tanner was acquired by MPI last August.

Negotiations have been ongoing between the Unite union and Butler and Tanner at conciliation service ACAS in Bristol. According to Unite, an average salary of £1,200 was due to each employee this month.

MPI’s chairman, Mike Dolan, said shareholders were unwilling to pour good money down what they consider to be a drain and they declined to make further funding available.

The union’s miscalculation has cost 300 people their jobs and sadly, 100 of those people were not even in the union. The union has shown utter contempt for its own members and Butler & Tanner by unnecessarily publicising their strike threat in a crass attempt to exert pressure on the company, added Mr Dolan.

Mr Dolan said if the threat of industrial action had been lifted MPI would have funded the business through what is traditionally a quiet time for Butler and Tanner.

Ann Field of Unite said we will be demanding recompense in full from the perpetrators of this despicable act sacrificing people’s jobs and livelihoods.

Mike Dolan and former boss Andrew Hillman should be called to account for what they have done to the workers’ jobs, their pensions and their community, concluded Ms Field.

Story link: Butler and Tanner Printers in receivership