Kodak set to sell shares in Channel Islands' newspaper printing company for £2

The JEP's parent company is seeking approval to buy Kodak's 84% stake in the Channel Islands' printing firm for £2. Credit: PA

Printing giant Kodak is looking to sell its shares in the company which prints most of the Channel Islands' local and national newspapers.

KP Services was founded in 2015 as a joint venture between Kodak and the former owners of the Jersey Evening Post, the Guiton Group.

All Island Media - the company which now owns the JEP and Bailiwick Express - is seeking permission from Jersey's competition regulator to buy Kodak's stake in the local printing firm for £2, according to the JCRA.

Currently, the company owns a minority stake while Kodak owns 84%, but the local business is now looking to take over Kodak's shares in the operation.

The deal is said to protect the future of on-island printing "and extend the life of physical newspapers" in the Channel Islands, safeguarding against having newspapers printed in the UK and shipped in - something the company said would not be economically viable.

At its peak, KP Services printed more than 20 different publications on-island at its base at Rue des Pres trading estate in St Saviour, including The Daily Mail, The Mirror and The Sun.

The national papers are then shipped across to the other Channel Islands by ferry each morning.

In its submission to the regulator, All Island Media said "KPS has always been in a weak commercial position because the price of printing each page is set by the national newspaper publishers who have very strong market position.

"As a result, KPS has been a loss-making business with no pricing power. This situation does not change because of the acquisition but by internalising KPS as a 'division' of the Jersey Evening Post various cost savings are available which will make KPS a break-even business."

Under the company's existing contract, national newspapers will continue to be printed on-island until at least May 2024 - but documents submitted to the JCRA reveal national newspaper publishers "will not commit to a contract for longer than six months to allow themselves the flexibility to withdraw if they are no longer covering their own costs."

A public consultation has been published on the JCRA website, with islanders given until Tuesday 22 August to have their say on the proposed merger.

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