RSDB to shed 20% of workforce as it warns of 'significant loss'

European print giant RSDB, the parent company of Roto Smeets, plans to shed 450 jobs across Europe as it said it would make a "significant" loss this year.

The potential job losses, which amount to around 20% of the workforce, are subject to negotiations with the Central Works Council, the in-house union board.

In addition, staff are to be asked to accept a 3% pay cut, to be repaid at a rate of 1% each year from 1 August 2010.

The majority of the jobs will be lost in the proposed closure of its Utrecht web offset plant, which currently employs 250 staff. Other jobs will be lost across the group.

Chief executive John Caris said: "We have experienced a 6% volume drop compared to last year. These measures will take out 8% of our capacity."

It is anticipated that the measures will achieve cost savings of at least €25m by 2011.

In a statement released this afternoon, the management board said that maintaining three web offset plants in the Netherlands "demands too much of the group's financial resilience".

The group's gravure operations are also to be downsized with the cessation of production on one press at ts Etten and Deventer sites.

The company said that western European print market was suffering from "serious overcapacity" saying that both gravure and web were currently operating at permanent excess capacity levels of 15-20%.

"If we combine this excess capacity with a drop in paper volumes due to the economic crisis, then it becomes clear that the immense pressure on prices will only continue," it said.

The statement also appeared to retreat from plans for European consolidation saying that the company’s results and the current climate "compel us to take measures now in a stand-alone situation".

It follows news unveiled by PrintWeek today that chief executive John Caris is in negotiations with the EU to relax competition laws in the industry to enable pan-European mega-mergers when the economy recovers.

The group has also renamed itself Roto Smeets Group to reflect the reputation of its most well-known company and will no longer trade on the Stock Exchange as RSDB.