You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Cambridge University Press has defended itself from claims of bad management following reports that MPG Printgroup, to which CUP transferred its in-house printing department last year, is poised for administration.
According to Cambridge News, up to 70 jobs could be at risk at MPG Printgroup's Bar Hill operation.
CUP ended more than 400 years of printing under its own name last summer, when it transferred its in-house department, and most of its staff, to MPG. Staff members are understood to have moved to the new Bar Hill facility just two months ago.
Nigel Gawthrope, father of chapel for the Unite union, told Cambridge News: "People are very angry. The CUP business only moved here a short time ago, and now this has happened. In my view, it's all the result of bad management, initially by CUP which decided to move its printing facilities out of Cambridge up to Bar Hill last year. They have really shot themselves in the foot because the closure of this printworks will mean they now have to find somewhere else to do their printing."
In a statement, CUP said: "It is unclear at the moment what will happen with the MPG business and what that might mean for MPG staff. We will be closely monitoring the situation as it develops."
Responding to Gawthrope's criticism, the publisher commented that developments in printing technologies had made it "increasingly challenging" to maintain the fixed costs of an in-house printing operation. "This transfer to MPG was undertaken in good faith and as well as allowing the publishing groups the flexibility they need, was seen as a way of securing continued employment for staff otherwise facing possible redundancy through the potential closure of the Press's printing department," CUP said. "Throughout the contract to date we have offered every support to MPG and we are sorry to hear that the business may now be facing administration."
A spokesperson for restructuring advisor Zolfo Cooper, which had been reported to be on-site at MPG, said it had not been confirmed as the company's administrator.
MPG chief executive Tony Chard could not be reached for comment.