St Ives, the book and magazine printer worth £350 million, said yesterday that it was open to bid offers and would consider breaking up the group.

The announcement came as St Ives reported a 25 per cent drop in half-year profits.

Miles Emley, chairman of St Ives, said that he would “not rule out” bids and would look at any sensible offers for parts of the business after admitting that severe competitive pressures in the core magazine, brochure and catalogue business was forcing it to consider other strategies.

Mr Emley said: “We would not rule out sensible proposals. While selling off parts of the business is not at the front of our mind, we would consider any propositions.”

The chairman’s invitation comes six months after the group rejected a £282 million bid from Michael Green, the former chairman of Carlton Communications, in October last year, saying that his offer undervalued the business.

In the year to February 2, the group recorded a drop in pretax profits from £14.2 million to £10.7 million, which it blamed on “extremely challenging” trading conditions. After writing off £14.4 million of goodwill from the disposal of a printing operation, there was a £7.3 million net loss, compared with an £8.8 million profit last time.

Mr Emley said that increasing pressure from the rival printers Polestar and Prinovis, the German group, had meant that St Ives, which prints The Economist and Time Out, was struggling to compete in the long print-run market. Both Polestar and Prinovis recently built new gravure print plants, which Mr Emley said gave them a competitive edge.

The group, which counts Hodder and Bloomsbury, the publishers, and EMI, the music group, among its clients, said that repeat business contracts were also under downward price pressure because of oversupply in the market.

A downturn in CD and DVD sales contributed to a fall in revenue in the group’s sleeve-printing arm, although this was slightly offset by stronger sales of DVD boxsets. However, revenue from cased and paper-back books showed steady improvement, helped by the printing of JK Rowling’s best-seller Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

The group plans to overcome recent difficulties by offering a bespoke printing service to publishing and retail clients. It acquired Service Graphics, a large format digital print specialist, for £18 million in November last year, and operates sites in Bradford, Bristol, Peterborough and Plymouth. It also owns Clay Books, a printer of monochrome books based in Suffolk.

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