Commercial printer Wickliffe has confirmed the loss of 19 jobs from its Dunedin operations.
Staff were informed of the decision yesterday, and notice would be given at the end of this week, Wickliffe Solutions regional sales manager Paul Johnson said.
The Kaikorai Valley-based company acquired Fairfield-based Taieri Print in February last year, and ''we were always going to do a consolidation between the two plants''.
That had resulted in the closing of the Fairfield plant, as the company already operated an offset plant in Christchurch.
The Kaikorai Valley site would become a new South Island digital hub, with about 50 workers remaining at the expanded plant.
A new digital printer would be the only one of its type in the South Island.
''We are making a bold call for Dunedin by jumping in first,'' Mr Johnson said.
He noted the impact caused by the decline in orders for printing material for banks and government departments.
''We were getting cancellations over the last few years from banks that would have been about $150,000 a month.''
That decline led to Wickliffe being sold to Kalamazoo in October 2010.
While workers had been offered opportunities at operations around the Kalamazoo group, there had also been job losses sustained in Auckland and Wellington.
