Andy Wilson buys out PressOn partner

Andy Wilson is now sole owner of PressOn, having bought out joint founder and MD Nigel Webster.

“The Coronovius situation gave us the breathing space to look at the business and consider what we wanted to do with it,” said Wilson. “The upshot is that top level management is being restructured and Nigel has left to pursue other interests.” Wilson, who founded the Chatham-based company with Webster in 2000, is reviewing its business model in light of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, pointing out that “after two years of difficult trading due to Brexit, 2020 started out really well, then Coronovirus hit and in mid March we started to feel the pinch. In April we did just 5% of our usual turnover, in May 20% and in June 60%. Things are picking up - at the moment we have two thirds of our factory staff back in and half of our office staff - but you have to take into account that a lot of that work is Covid related and immediate. There’s no real pipeline of work, though we can see some of the work that was cancelled coming back. It’s not great when it comes to the retail and exhibition sectors so we need to really look at where we can be innovative, in terms of business strategy as well as technologically.” Wilson said PressOn is now reviewing its marketing strategy as part of its refocusing.