All staff from the Leeds-based company's press hall are awaiting a consultation period, which it is understood will start in the next few days.

Polestar said the decision was part of an ongoing review of its print strategy. As part of that review, the Baker Perkins G16 and a Manroland Lithoman 3 will cease production.

Catherine Hearn, Polestar's group operations director, told PrintWeek that the decision to close the two presses was announced to workers this morning.

She said: "We have planned to take web offset capacity out of the market and workers will have been aware of this.

"The presses were closed because of their ages. One was over 20 years old, the other was just under."

Polestar chief executive Barry Hibbert said: "I suspect this is one of many moves in the sector to reduce capacity.

"From a group perspective, it is better to close presses at one of our major web offset sites rather than downshift at several sites; the net result is to take press hours out of the market.

"Having run the Petty site as managing director back in the 1990s I am sorry to see this affect many of the people I have worked with closely.''

Chris Bowen, Polestar Petty managing director, said: ''We will consult with staff over the coming weeks and provide as much support as possible to help those at risk of redundancy.''

Andy Hogg has been appointed as Polestar Petty's Unite representative. He is expected to hold meetings on Friday (19 December).