The proposed redundancies are spread across all UK sites, but will be largely focused on Paperlinx’s commercial print operations. Staff were notified of the proposal in late March.

The group currently employs just over 1,200 staff in the UK, compared with 1,750 three years ago. These latest cuts follow 65 job losses earlier this year when the group closed its Nottingham, Sheffield and Leeds distribution centres.

“Realigning our workforce, particularly in the UK, is what we have to do to return this business to profitability as soon as possible. The unfortunate impact of that is that we have to let go of some very good people,” said Paperlinx chief executive Andrew Price.

“In a market that is shrinking at the rate it is, there really aren’t a lot of alternatives and the worst part is that the people that we have to let go have done no wrong; they’re hard working and loyal, it's just unfortunate that the business can no longer support them.”

The group’s VTS and Packaging divisions are understood to be largely unaffected by the job cuts. However, as part of the cost-cutting exercise, the group is also reviewing its property and IT infrastructure with a view to further cost savings.

“We’re finally in a position when we can see the UK business returning to [operational] profit within the next few months, and the UK business has not been profitable for years. But to get there hasn’t been an easy road and we’ve had to be hard, fast and sharp,” said Price.

He added that he hoped these latest job losses would be the last “big cuts” to impact the business and that future operational changes would “fine-tuning”, but he stressed that there were no guarantees.

“We’re building into our forecasts a 9% decline across the commercial printed sheet market, but we’re right-sized for that and hopefully it will be nearer 6%,” said Price.