The paper sales and conversion company is considering either a sale and lease back arrangement, or to relocate locally.

Athol Manning, director of financial and commercial activities at the £27m turnover company, said: "The sale of the Colombier Sittingbourne facility has been driven by a positive change in the company's business model.

"This has reduced the company's working capital requirements due to the implementation of a successful stock reduction program thereby negating the need for large warehousing facilities."

Colombier UK has reduced its stock levels by 50% over 12 months by reducing the number of its suppliers and concentrating on fewer preferred partners.

Manning said that carrying a large stock range and adding value through the conversion process is no longer viable due to the reduced demand for non standard sizes in both reels and sheets.

"This in turn has resulted in eight operational redundancies as it is now more economical in most cases to purchase reels and sheets pre-processed at source," he said.

Colombier UK's own sales business will not be adversely affected by this change, according to Manning, as it has access to a wide range of virtual stock through its trading partners.

The company offers a range of conversion services including sheeting, guillotining, rewinding, mobile reel resizing and mobile plunge cutting.

It also stocks over 10,000 tonnes of web and sheetfed papers and boards.