A MAJOR client of RR Donnelley printers has revealed why they chose not to renew their contract with the firm.

Some Thomson Local directories, along with the Dutch telephone directory, were printed at the firm's site at Flaxby Moor, between York and Knaresborough, but both companies have chosen not to renew their contracts.

This is believed to have led to the announcement that around 100 of the workers will be made redundant by January.

Now Thomson Local has explained why it chose to end the contract. Steve Arnold, operations manager at Thomson Local, said: "With the recent re-brand to The Book from Thomson Local and our Nectar partnership, the decision was taken to shift print-production from two companies, including RR Donnelly, to a new company that has the infrastructure in-place to provide our required capacity. Further to speculation, the award of our print contract was not due to quality issues or the decision of RR Donnelly to move production to Poland."

He added that Thomson Local publishes 22 million directories a year and, when changing from two printers to one printer, they have to be sure that company has the capacity and infrastructure to print that volume of publications.

In RR Donnelley's case, it was felt the company did not have the required infrastructure in place.

But there have been redundancy worries at RR Donnelley for some time.

A source said that several managers from Poland visited the plant earlier in the year to train on machines and there was speculation then this could lead to more work being moved abroad.

The Press contacted managing director Keith Ruddock but he said he was unable to comment.

* A 43-year-old man was airlifted to hospital after a collision with a fork lift truck. He was airlifted to Harrogate District Hospital with neck and back pain after the collision, which happened at RR Donnelley, at about 10am yesterday.