The paper merchant has also announced it will close its European head office in Amsterdam along with the staff reductions at the local HQ in the suburb of Mt Waverly. 

Numbers at the Melbourne site have been reduced over recent years, falling from 50 down to around 30 after the sale of Australian Paper in June 2009 and now set to be reduced to around 20 by mid 2011. 

This will help create ongoing cost savings of around $15m per annum, which the business said would be cost neutral in the current financial year.

Its two European regions will now report directly to chief executive Toby Marchant, who is based at the company’s operational head office in the UK. 

Marchant said: “Our move out of manufacturing was always going to allow us to reduce central costs, but we have gone beyond that to create a head office structure relevant for the Paperlinx of tomorrow. 

“At its heart is a commitment to our unique value proposition that allows our 30 individual operating companies to shape themselves to precisely match the future needs of their customers.”

Some 70% of the merchant’s business is in Europe, while 90% is in the Northern Hemisphere.

A spokeswoman for Paperlinx said it had an “ongoing objective of reducing its overheads by creating a flatter, more ergonomic structure”.

She said: “Unfortunately this process has resulted in a number of redundancies.” 

Last year, Marchant was appointed managing director and chief executive of Paperlinx as of 1 November.

In February 2009, Paperlinx agreed to sell its Australian manufacturing business Australian Paper for $700m to Japan-based Nippon Paper Group.

Read the original article at www.printweek.com.

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