The Farnborough-headquartered firm entered a consultancy period with employees last month, and informed more than 20% of staff that their position was at risk of redundancy.

The £150m turnover group employed 284 people at the date of its last accounts. The fourth generation family business was established in 1922 and has many long-serving employees.

In a letter to employees seen by Printweek, managing director Matthew Elliott said the impact of Covid-19 on its customers had caused a “critical juncture” and the business needed to respond to “what will be a challenging and uncertain trading period for a sustained period of time”.

The company plans to close its Hemel Hempstead sales and logistics operation, and will also disband the inside sales team based out of Birmingham.

Elliott could not be reached for further comment at the time of writing.

A number of other merchants are also understood to be making changes to their operations in response to the dramatic effects on demand caused by the pandemic and its associated restrictions.