A consultation has begun at the plant, which currently prints The Scotsman, the Evening News and Scotland on Sunday.

If the proposal goes ahead, most of Johnston Press's weekly titles would go to its Sunderland-based facility. The Evening News would go to News International's Eurocentral facility and The Scotsman and the Scotland on Sunday would be printed at Trinity Mirror's Cardonald plant.

Unite said it is hopeful that some jobs can be saved, however added that 97 production roles and nine distribution and loading bay roles were facing redundancy as part of the plans.

According to Johnston Press, implementation of the proposal will "reduce production costs and risks associated with the ageing press, [and] will provide improved print quality and publishing flexibility".            

David Crow, printing division managing director, said: "Transfer of our Scottish printing operations will provide significant cost benefits and quality improvements.

"The proposal to move work outside of Johnston Press was heavily influenced by the need for significant investment in the existing newspaper press at Caledonian and by a shift toward capacity consolidation in the newspaper printing sector."

Steve Sibbald, national officer at Unite, added: "We are obviously shocked by the announcement and we will do all we can to save as many jobs as possible. We certainly believe there will be job opportunities available throughout the company as Johnston Press has done that in the past."