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LONDON • APRIL 2026: Walstead UK announces today that it has commenced a 45-day consultation with 55 permanent employees from a total of 136 at its Peterborough web offset printing facility.

The restructuring proposal would result in redundancies from permanent positions across all the company’s departments. However, there will be vacancies at Walstead UK’s other sites where some of the Peterborough employees could transfer if the proposed redundancies are confirmed.

The UK web offset printing industry continues to experience a reduction in magazine and catalogue volumes. Whilst Walstead has continued to win new contracts, the overall reduction in demand cannot be mitigated by this work. This has necessitated the review of Peterborough’s manufacturing capacity. The proposed plan involves the decommissioning of a 32pp short-grain printing press and a reduction in manning across the bindery and pre-press departments.

Debbie Read, CEO of Walstead UK, commented: “It is unfortunate that we have had to propose this restructuring plan. However, Walstead UK’s market-leading position and its efficient print manufacturing platform across its five sites have been achieved by continually aligning our capacity to market demand and ensuring our operating costs are reduced accordingly. Alongside these actions, we are actively assessing adjacent markets and complementary product segments that can be leveraged – this is being supported by detailed customer discussions with the intention to diversify volumes and strengthen long-term utilisation of our manufacturing footprint.”��

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