Although the pre-tax loss was marginally down on the £39.2m loss in 2008, there was little improvement to be found elsewhere in the group's balance sheet.

Turnover fell 12% to £275.7m (group turnover £310m), gross profit was down a third at £29.1m, while adjusted EBITDA also fell, dropping more than 37% to £29.1m.

Peter Johnston, group finance director, said in the directors' report: "Both volumes and pricing in the printing market are under significant pressure.

"This has been driven by excess capacity in the UK and continental European printing markets, which has been exacerbated by the difficult economic environment."

The group highlighted the impact of non-recurring cash costs of £14.1m, relating to redundancies, business reorganisation costs and vacant site costs, on its pre-tax result.

Rising energy costs also had a "significant impact" on net operating expenses, which stood at £51.2m (down from £60.5m in 2008), while rising paper costs – which are borne by customers – affected demand.

One positive was the growth in revenues from mainland Europe, which increased from £8.9m in 2008 to £16.3m in 2009, thanks to the weakness of sterling against the euro in the period.

The group's total number of employees fell from 3,307 the year before to 2,920. Total staff costs were £102m, while the highest paid director received total emoluments (salary including any bonuses due and benefits) of £918,842.

This article relates to the accounts filed by Polestar UK Print and not to the consolidated group accounts filed by The Polestar Company.