THE END OF THE HAYNES PRINTED MANUAL
New owners ditch new paper products and sell off contents of the workshop
The new owners of Haynes, Infopro Digital, is to cease production of the printed Haynes manual, after 60 years and 200 million copies.
The company indicated in early December that it doesn’t see a future in printing new versions of the much-loved guides and, in turn, has announced eight editorial staff redundancies.
With modern cars becoming increasingly hi-tech, there has been a reported downturn in demand. This combined with the parent company deciding to move away from print products to a ‘digital and data-driven operation’ signified the death knell for operations, including the end of the studio and workshop where cars were deconstructed and photographed for printing in the step-by-step guides. PC could not get confirmation of this closure from the company, but discovered the entire workshop inventory up for auction at Sanderson
Wetherall – the fire sale having been instigated on November 6.
Contributing authors for Haynes Publishing were told via email of the decision, along with the reassurance that publishing of the back catalogue of car and motorcycle books will continue. The company will also try to redistribute redundant staff around the business and added that it’s ‘currently in the process of creating an exciting and comprehensive new automotive maintenance and repair product that will cover around 95 per cent of car makes and models.’ More details to come in due course.
‘The company has made eight editorial staff redundant’