NJP managing director Bob Pitts said the firm was waiting to "push the button" on the greenfield project at the 27-acre site, which was granted planning permission in March this year.

Pitts said that a number of factors, including the announcement this week of the results of Emap's print roster review, had delayed the start of the project, which will see NJP move away from its historic Whitefriars site in central Norwich.

"It's accurate to say that the delay has some bearing on that [the Emap decision]. We will have to take a view in a week's time over when to push the button," he said.

But both Pitts and Christian Knapp, KBA UK managing director, categorically denied speculation that NJP's order for two 1,240mm cut-off 64pp KBA Compactas had been cancelled.

Both said the first of the two presses, the first 64pp KBA presses in the UK, had been delivered and was fully paid for but not yet built.

Pitts said that the press may still be installed at Whitefriars, although he would prefer to install it at Wymondham "once the shed there is built".

Jarrold & Son, which owns the Whitefriars site, has a planning application for the 27,850sqm car-park on the site to build offices, housing, shops and a multi-storey car park.

For the second Compacta, ordered in May this year, NJP has signed what Knapp described as a "firm option" for the press, and paid a holding deposit.