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Potential Parragon closure puts 245 jobs at risk
Parragon Books is to enter into consultation about the potential closure of the business, with up to 245 jobs at risk of redundancy globally, its owner DC Thomson has said.
The Bath-based business had been “underperforming for a number of years” due to difficult market conditions and severe pressure on margins, DC Thomson said.
Mike Symons, chief executive of Parragon, said: “Early last year, the new management team joined and undertook a strategic review of the company, implementing some immediate changes which improved the company position.
“Under their guidance, the whole team made really significant progress over and above the expectations of the shareholders, but the market has gone against us further than anticipated, so today we are announcing that it is the strategic decision of DC Thomson to exit from Parragon operations worldwide.”
In the UK the business will enter a 45-day collective consultation process with employees. In other territories, the company will follow the respective processes.
Employees in the UK, Germany, the US, and other Parragon offices worldwide, including Hong Kong and Australia, have been informed of the news. Up to 245 jobs are at risk of redundancy globally.
DC Thomson said it was still exploring whether a sale of all or part of the Parragon business would be possible.
David Thomson, director of DC Thomson, said: “Whilst we are still open to offers and expressions of interest for the business, DC Thomson is unable to run this process indefinitely. Therefore, the company has made the decision to enter into a consultation process. This decision has not been entered into lightly and, as owners of the business for more than a decade, we are very disappointed to be making this announcement today.
“No other parts of the DC Thomson group are affected by this and DC Thomson is fully committed to supporting Parragon throughout this process.”
Parragon sold £8.7m in the UK last year through Nielsen BookScan, down 12.2% on 2016 (£9.6m) and 15.6% down on 2015 (£10.2m).
