Danwood launches redundancy consultation

Print VAR informed staff of start of consultation period on Friday, ChannelWeb understands

Print VAR Danwood is set to make a swathe of redundancies, with hundreds of staff understood to have entered a consultation period, ChannelWeb has learned.

Sources indicate employees were informed on Friday of the commencement of the consultation period. It is thought that about 320 staff are directly affected.

According to its recently published FY11 accounts, this would represent more than one in six of the firm's 1,750 staff. Sources claim that the 320 figure represents every salesperson below manager level, who will be taking part in the consultation in the coming weeks, with about one in four ultimately set for the axe.

It is also understood that about a number of comparatively short-term employees - thought to number about 90 or more - were shown the door earlier last week.

According to industry insiders, sales staff were called into a meeting at a number of Danwood offices across the country and read a prepared statement. The reseller is reportedly hoping some employees will take voluntary redundancy.

Danwood recently found itself in the headlines when ChannelWeb revealed that founder Colin Daniels, alongside a number of senior management colleagues, was heading for the exit door. In the past week, The Danwood Group has filed the termination of a further five directorial appointments at Companies House: Ian Grundy, Nicholas Swindin, Kevin Ingman, Andrew Brown and Jeremy Shaw.

The company also recently revealed that it has restated six years' worth of accounts relating to "accounting weaknesses" in how it recognised hardware revenue from services contracts. For the 2010 fiscal year, the restatement resulted in the loss of £16.26m in revenue and more than £8.5m in operating profit.

The new management team, led by chief executive Stephen Francis, has spoken about "the birth of new Danwood", following the publication of the restated numbers and the senior management reshuffle.

Danwood was yet to respond to requests for comment at time of publication. Follow ChannelWeb for all further developments.