Up to 18 jobs lost as printer bows out

LUCY CRAYMER
A Hastings business that has operated since 1938 will close its doors in December, leaving up to 18 people jobless.
Staff at Cliff Press Printers Ltd have been told the Karamu Road, Hastings, operation will close on December 9, with redundancies likely. At this stage the number of jobs to go is uncertain as negotiations for the sale of the printing business have yet to be finalised.
It is the fourth business in recent weeks to tell staff it faces closure - between them, the closures of Medallion Foods Ltd, British American Tobacco (NZ) Ltd and Design Spun have cost the region 260 jobs.
A company owned by Cliff Press Printers' two directors, Colin Wilson and his wife Carol, Fabric Weavers, has sold the land on Karamu Road, with the printing business also up for sale.
Mr Wilson, 63 started work at the press when he was 15. He said many staff had been there nearly as long.
"The premises from which the company has operated over recent years have been sold and that fact, combined with changes in the printing industry, has led the company to decide it is uneconomic to attempt to re-establish in new premises with updated equipment," he said.
The site has been bought by Hastings-based Durham Developments and car sales firm Hawke's Bay European will start developing part of it after Cliff Press Printers moves out in December.
Durham's spokesman, Jeff Gray, said they had been seeking a property on Karamu Road to grow Hawke's Bay European and it had taken over a year to find a suitable one: "There are other opportunities to redevelop the rest of the site but we are looking just at stage one at the moment."
Financial advisor Stephen Eaton, who works at McDouall Stuart Securities, said the closures were not necessarily a reflection of economic downturn.
"Actually, growth is still quite reasonable. For the June quarter we had 1.1 percent GDP growth," he said.