January 15, 2013 1.28 pm This story is over 134 months old

Danwood staff in redundancy talks as firm restructures

‘New Danwood’: One of Lincoln’s largest employers initiated redundancy talks with some of its employees as the company looks to restructure itself.
The Danwood Group head office on Whisby Road in Lincoln.

The Danwood Group, one of Lincoln’s largest employers, initiated redundancy talks with some of its employees as the company looks to restructure itself.

Danwood is one of the largest independent suppliers of office printing equipment, consumables and associated management services in Europe.

The group completed more than 35 acquisitions in the past seven years, and has offices in some 40 locations across the UK, with its head office on Whisby Road in Lincoln.

These offices are managed under a regional structure and CEO Steve Francis is now looking to manage customers by the vertical sectors.

Danwood is proposing to restructure and resize its field sales force into these verticals, which would lead to a reduction in the number of roles in most parts of the business.

The Lincoln sales function makes up a very small percentage of the overall group operation of more than 500 people, and it’s unclear at this stage how many jobs would be affected.

The company employs around 1,800 staff across the country.

Danwood has invested in a company-wide CRM project that has now been fully deployed and operational for some months, with benefits already apparent, and the restructure is based on a review of the CRM data, the company said.

According to PrintWeek, Danwood Group has been forced to restate its accounts for the last six years after uncovering “accounting irregularities” relating to Managed Print Services (MPS) contracts.

In its accounts for the year ended 30 September 2011, Danwood recorded a pre-tax loss of £18.2 million on turnover of £212 million. Its net loss for the year was £20.2 million while the £49.6 million loss on the prior year adjustment meant that total losses recognised since its previous financial report were £69.8 million.