The communications company is to mothball three of its presses as part of a move away from "commoditised" print. A 30-day consultation began on 19 April with around 70 staff.

Chief executive Andy Blundell said: "This move is totally logical. We are moving away from the commoditised end of the direct mail and print market. It isn't about reducing our market capacity.

"I should add that we will still be retaining capacity in our non-digital department; this is not a wholesale shutdown of that side of the business. But, we are rebalancing the business and we are confident about the future here in Leeds."

Unite regional officer Steve Hart said that the news was not a surprise to the workforce, which had gone through several similar consultations.

He added: "There is a lot of anger there because they have gone through a number of phases of redundancy over the past two years. A lot of skilled people have lost their jobs."

News of the redundancies came as Communisis published its interim management statement for the first quarter, in which it said trading had been in line with expectations.

Communisis said that the removal of some of its "legacy offset capacity" was a consequence of its installation of the UK's first HP T300 digital web press at the Leeds mailing facility.