Soho post facility P3 has denied rumours it is going bust but has admitted that it will have to close one of its two offices and make staff cutbacks, writes Sam Espensen.
The facility's first office in Lexington Street will remain open, while its three-year-old offshoot, P3 Outpost, in Ramillies Street will close.
Managing director Paul Hutchings explained that the offline facility P3 Outpost was opened at a time when "economies of scale and increased offline capacity made it a sound decision". But he acknowledged that "the post market has changed significantly since then and we recognise the need to change our business accordingly".
There will be redundancies among the 32 permanent members of staff and Hutchings believes as many as a third could lose their jobs.
"There's no fun and very little margin in competing in today's numbers game," he said. "We are aware that this move has already resulted in speculation within the industry about our future, but we would like to reassure both clients and suppliers that, contrary to some rumours, this is a positive choice."
The P3 operation in Lexington Street has nine suites while P3 Outpost has seven. However, when P3 Outpost closes, space at Lexington Street will be reorganised so that four new suites can be put in, meaning only three will be lost in total.
"The new business model is a more efficient operation, but we have a very close team which makes this decision even harder." He hopes that new services and products that the company intends to launch will be "less reliant on tying up Soho real estate". He also hopes another post house will take up the lease for P3 Outpost's building.
P3's credits include recent work for Initial on the Baftas, Dave Gorman's programmes and the Grammys for the BBC this week.
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