Scott said that he expected a final decision to be made on the review early next month, however, he added that there was still "a lot of talking to do before we come to any conclusion".

The review includes Marie Claire, which is currently printed gravure at Prinovis's Nuremberg site in Germany, as well as 16 other titles – the bulk of which are monthlies printed at St Ives' Roche and Plymouth sites.

Speculation is rife that Marie Claire could return to the UK, following completion of the tender, largely due to the unfavourable euro exchange rate and logistical headache of printing the title on the continent, and it is not thought that any of the 16 other titles will move overseas.

However, Scott stressed that IPC, in addition to its talks with UK printers, had indeed been looking "further afield" at printers "on the other side of the English Channel".

"I would rather keep the business in the UK for obvious reasons, but we have to look for the best long-term solution so that's why we've spread the net a little bit wider," he added.

In the UK, Walstead Investments subsidiaries Wyndeham Press Group and Southernprint are both involved in the tender, as are BGP, Polestar and St Ives.

When IPC launched the tender, Scott said that IPC would "probably look to keep the titles together as a batch with one supplier", although, he has now said that this is not a foregone conclusion.

"That's absolutely up for negotiation at the moment. They will not necessarily all go to one place," he said.

"Things have changed, there are fewer suppliers and there is an argument that we might be wiser to spread our work among a slightly larger number of suppliers than put it all together in one place."