“PMP and Sensis have agreed to vary their current printing agreement to reflect the falling demand for print-based directories,” PMP announced yesterday.
“As a result, part of the existing schedule of work at Chullora has been retained and will be relocated to PMP’s highly efficient Moorebank printing plant.”
The print giant said Chullora would close on 30 June 2013 with most of its staff likely to be dismissed. The consolidation play, which ProPrint revealed a fortnight ago, will cost about $11.5 million in redundancies and press relocation, said PMP.
Chullora staffer Mark Aubrey, who is also the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union’s printing division president, told ProPrint that he expected about 90% of Chullora’s 130 staff to be dismissed – including him.
“We’ve known that this was coming for 12 months or so. It was simply a matter of having a date confirmed as to when the closure would occur,” he said.
[Photos: Chullora behind-the-scenes tour]
“There will be no [industrial] action… It’s disappointing, but it’s a market reaction and unfortunately we react to the market and being a [site] that only has one customer, being Sensis, we’re beholden to them.”
Aubrey speculated that PMP would relocate the trimming, packaging and palletising equipment it purchased for Chullora three years ago.
He said it was unlikely the three Harris Heidelberg directory presses would be moved, because they were “dinosaurs” commissioned in 1993 for which it is difficult to get spare parts.
PMP management could not be reached for comment because today is the company’s annual general meeting.
However chief executive Peter George said in a statement: “The change in print volumes reflects changing consumer needs, which is an inevitable step in response to the realities of the digital marketplace.
“The closure has now been factored into our planned print fleet rationalisation, leaving us with modern equipment geared to customer demand.”
PMP said the decision to close Chullora would not alter its 6 November trading update, which forecast earnings before interest and tax and before significant items of $31-41 million for 2012-13.
[Related: Ups and downs of PMP]
Comment below to have your say on this story.
If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.
Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter