Cradley said it is likely it will have no alternative but to put Cradley Print into administration after a survival deal with Amicus fell through.

On 24 March Cradley announced it was in negotiations with staff to reduce the size of its workforce in order to reduce costs.

In early April Cradley sold its Chester Road site for 2.4m to cover the "anticipated reorganisation costs" of the cuts.

Cradley proposed around 70 redundancies, along with changes to shift patterns and shift premiums in return for a 25% share of future profits for the remaining workforce.

"This was simply unacceptable," said Amicus national officer Steve Sibbald. "Share of a non-existent profit isn't good enough."

Sibbald said this was the fifth survival package the workforce had been offered since 2001 and that the management had brought about "death by a thousand cuts."

The firm said this meant Cradley Print's principal banker had "withdrawn its facility".

Managing director Chris Jordan was unavailable for comment.