Haynes Publishing, world famous for its multilingual, grassroots technical manuals, is restructuring to try to halt a financial slide.
The company, founded in 1960 by John Haynes, has announced it is to close its head office in Sparkford, Somerset, make some staff redundant and merge its general publishing arm with its technical manual division. It is also shutting its distribution arm and will outsource to a “third-party logistics” firm.
Haynes employs 280 people worldwide, around 70 at its head office.
With its general book sales falling 18 per cent over the past year, and with manual sales dropping by around 7 per cent, Haynes has been forced to rethink its business model.
Earlier this month Haynes bought Clymer Manuals and Intertec Manuals, both previously owned by US-based Penton Business Media (founded in 1892 by John Penton and currently a huge trade magazine publisher with long fingers and deep pockets). Haynes, it is rumoured, paid ?5.85m in the deal; almost 60 per cent of it in cash, and the rest in the form of debt.
The purchase makes Haynes the world’s premier publisher of automotive manuals (having effectively usurped Clymer) and will give the firm access to new markets such as snowmobiles, chainsaws, water recreation craft and tractors.
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