The blow for Orchestra staff comes just four months after Communisis bought the business out of administration in a £2.25m pre-pack deal that initially preserved 122 jobs at the site, before 35 of these were cut as part of a group-wide cost reduction programme in July.

Communisis chief executive Andy Blundell said the group would maintain a small IT support and customer service presence in Bristol to service the BBC contract and other customers secured as a result of the Orchestra acquisition.

He added that the decision to move fulfillment of the BBC contract to Communisis' existing sites, which was announced in this morning's interim management statement, was not a foregone conclusion when it acquired Orchestra Bristol back in June.

"Our view when we took on the business was absolutely not prescriptive," he said. "We're very objective about it and the consultation will be exactly that."

The likely closure of the Bristol site would result in an exceptional restructuring charge of approximately £900,000 in the second half of 2011 and is expected to deliver annual profit improvements in excess of this amount in 2012.

Blundell said the BBC contract had "settled down very favourably", while other third quarter highlights included contract wins with Northern Rock and Boots and the expansion of existing contracts with Barclaycard and Procter & Gamble.

Collectively the new business is expected to deliver annual revenues in excess of £20m, which Blundell said would "set the foundation for next year". He added that the company's new technology licensing deal with US-based Sorriso was a key part of the group's strategy.

"It's important because it gives us real scale in terms of e-billing and allows us to carry a marketing message consistently through online channels in the same way we would in paper format."