News

More than 30 jobs have been created by a new company formed in the aftermath of a fire at RR Donnelley’s Kadocourt finishing facility.

RR Donnelley closed the plant in Aylesbury at the end of 2007 following a fire in September that year.
But Kadocourt’s former general manager Julian Rolfe, former operations manager Richard Pedder, and fellow director Steve Hanks have set up a new company offering similar services.

Codex Solutions, named after the Latin word for the original form of a book, has bought around £130,000 of equipment for its new site at Leighton Buzzard.

It has also brought across 31 former Kadocourt staff, as well as employing one new face.

The new company was up and running on 21 January. Funding for the launch was provided by Lloyds TSB, and the three directors have also made personal investments.

Rolfe said: “Once RR Donnelley took the decision to close the site, we sat down and said ‘we can make something of this’. We knew that most of the staff hadn’t got new jobs, so we already had a workforce waiting for us.

“Some of our previous customers have placed orders, and we are talking to others. We already have relationships, but we also have a focus on picking up new work.”

The company will be offering book rebinding, slipcase and box-set manufacture and fulfilment, shrinkwrapping, screen-printing, a range of handwork services and storage and distribution.

Equipment installed at the finishers, both new and secondhand, has come from Polar, LadyPack, Heidelberg and Universal.

Rolfe added further investment would follow, and that the firm was looking to turn over £1.5m in its first year.