It hopes to save 22m ($36m) a year after recording a 38m loss, including 51m of restructuring charges and write-downs, in the second quarter of 2003. The charges also included a 9.3m provision for doubtful accounts.

The job cuts equate to 2.6% of the groups global workforce, and are in addition to 364 redundancies announced in February and 505 up to December 2002 (PrintWeek, 7 February 2003). It also cut 3,000 jobs in 2001.

President and chief executive Jean Neveu said the latest cuts demonstrate our new management's firm resolve to deal with the current competitive environment while setting a clear course for the future.

The worlds largest commercial print group reported a 4% rise in sales for the first six months of 2003 to 1.87bn.

Its UK plant at Corby performed well in the second quarter, along with those in Belgium and Austria, but its operations in France, Spain and the Nordic countries all suffered.