A 30-day consultation period with the affected staff, which equates to 12% of the 500 staff employed at its Bicester, Oxfordshire site, began today (25 February).

According to David Holland, chief executive of BGP parent Goodhead Group, the job cuts are directly linked to the removal of the presses, a 16pp and a 32pp.

"So much of our work now is for our 72pp presses that 16pp and 32pp are not really what we want to produce on anymore.

"The 72s are patently more powerful and we're well advanced on the learning curve… the performance is continually improving, and [as a result] we can be quite happily self-sufficient on six presses."

The web offset printer will begin decommissioning the two 10-year-old Komoris on Monday (2 March), leaving it with four 72pp presses, a Goss Sunday 48/96pp and a 16pp Manroland Polyman with sheeter once the process is complete.

According to Holland, the job cuts and decommissioning are in line with the rest of the market and the company is on course to turn a profit in the 2009/2010 financial year.

"We continue to win new orders and we're still on track to get in the black for the next financial year… in terms of our macro plan we're on track, although I wouldn't say the market is necessarily on track," he said.

In January, it was revealed Goodhead Group had posted a £18.3m pre-tax loss on a turnover of £46.1m for the year ending 31 May 2008.

The announcement came after a £32.4m debt-for-equity swap in December by Goodhead owner John Madejski, which at the time was said to be "largely focused" on BGP.