The company said it expected to boost the scheme by €30m (£26.8m) to €80m in 2009, while generating additional cash flow of €100 million from balance sheet reductions "in the area of real estate, inventories, finance lease debtors and accounts receivable," according to Rokus van Iperen, chairman of the board of executive directors.

Profit for the quarter stood at €700,000 from €35.8m the year previous. Fourth quarter revenues were down 4.3% to €802m while free cash flow dipped 31.7%. The manufacturer cited the continual "postponement" of high-volume equipment orders as one of the reasons behind the drop in sales. The Dutch manufacturer also revealed that the dividend for 2008 will be €0.15 per ordinary share.

The company expects around 360 positions to go throughout 2009, although workers in the UK look safe.

Bron Curley, managing director of Océ UK, said: "We are monitoring costs extremely closely in all areas of our business as everybody else does in these challenging times, but here, in the UK, we currently have no plans for any further redundancies."

Van Iperen said the economic downturn had impacted the printing industry and also "severely affected Océ's financial performance".

He added that while the company had maintained a competitive position, it anticipated "continuing challenging market conditions".

Océ also revealed it was to continue to pursue new partnerships including selling continuous-feed and wide-format printers through third parties.

Earlier this month, Polestar became the first UK customer of Océ's JetStream 2200.