The future of Watford had been the subject of speculation for some time, and was compounded earlier this year when Polestar created a 64pp superplant at its Petty site in Leeds.

Watford runs a new MAN Roland Lithoman IV 64pp web and an older short-grain 64pp. Both could potentially be relocated to Petty. It has 300 staff, and prints a number of weekly titles including TV Times and Whats on TV? for IPC. IPC Manufacturing director Jasper Scott said: Obviously its sad for the individual workers but from a clients point-of-view its progress. Watford was never going to be a sustainable, efficient site unless it was rebuilt from scratch. I look upon it as a positive thing and a sign that Polestar is doing the right thing to sort the business out.

In a statement, group operations director Mike Bartlett said: Polestar Watford and Petty serve similar markets and it makes sense to combine them now to create one cost-effective and efficient print factory. We believe the future for Polestar is in a smaller number of much larger sites where we can achieve better scale and efficiency.

GPMU deputy general secretary Tony Burke described the announcement as another blow to the printing industry. Im obviously very concerned for our members and their families, particularly at this time of year. The union had been informed of Polestars intentions and was meeting with the company as PrintWeek went to press. Burke said he hoped to persuade Polestar to reverse the decision. They have said they are willing to listen to alternative proposals, he said.