MORE than 100 jobs at one of Kidderminster's oldest businesses have been safeguarded following a management buy-out.

Printing and office supplies specialists G T Cheshire and Sons Ltd, in Coventry Street, which employs 110 people and has an annual turnover of £9 million, has been sold for an undisclosed sum.

The deal, which was struck on May 18, will safeguard all the current jobs at the company's Kidderminster and Hartlebury sites.

Cheshire's deputy managing director Brian Wilson, who has been with the company for more than 30 years, takes over as the new managing director and will be joined on the board by director Alan Watts and sales director Ray Bignell.

Mr Wilson said: "This is a sound business with a strong local heritage.

"In spite of mounting speculation as to the future of the business, our work force has shown remarkable dedication and the management team looks forward to working with them to secure the company's long term future."

He said business' parent company, Great Universal Stores PLC, had decided although the firm had always been a profitable concern, its own future lay in different areas.

He said the company supplied direct mail across the country, while the office supplies business tended to be more local and West Midlands based.

The firm will now go through a period of stabilisation but has already been split into two components - the office supplies division, at its Hartlebury base, and the direct mail side in Coventry Street.

The company has been based close to the town centre for more than 60 years and before that, in other locations in Kidderminster since 1836.