Wickliffe Solutions' owner, Kalamazoo (NZ) Ltd, has denied the Dunedin printer and its many sister companies around the country are for sale.
Wickliffe Solutions, formerly 65-year-year old Dunedin-founded Wickliffe, is the standard-bearer of the wider group of print-related Kalamazoo companies bought in recent years by Stephen D'Souza.
The others are K&M Print in Palmerston North, Taieri Print near Dunedin, Astra Print in Wellington, Auckland's The Print Shop and Print Counsel, logistics company Stocklink and Wyatt & Wilson Print in Christchurch.
Auckland-based Kalamazoo chief executive Glen Climo was contacted yesterday and rejected all speculation that any of the Kalamazoo group businesses were for sale.
''Stephen D'Souza has taken a sideline in the day-to-day running of the company,'' Mr Climo said.
When asked why, Mr Climo would only say ''he's taking a well-earned break''.
Mr D'Souza remains listed by the Companies Office as co-director and one of the 50:50 Kalamazoo shareholders, and Mr Climo said that shareholding ''was not changing''.
Mr Climo conceded that while ''there were rumours out there'', that was possibly from the ''stress of restructuring'' countrywide, especially in the case of Dunedin.
While it was regretted jobs were lost, changes in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch took ''four days'', but Dunedin had ''extra stress'' ''because with the unions it took four weeks''.
The restructuring and change to full ''digital platform'' printing were necessary for the Dunedin operation and were ''future proofing'' the business in the city, Mr Climo said.
The print sector in general around the country was under pressure, but it was ''business as usual'' for Kalamazoo's businesses.
He also rejected any suggestion the company was in negotiation with any parties over a possible sale.
