The proposals were put to the plant's 600 staff at the beginning of the month. There was an 80% turnout for the ballot and 60% voted in favour of the changes.

Just under 100 jobs will go at the Bristol business as a result of a raft of changes, including the decommissioning of one of its six gravure presses, an ageing 2.2m-wide model.

The finishing and demographic departments, previously run as separate businesses, will be merged to create one integrated department. And a new seven-day, five shift pattern in the press hall will allow the plant to run 24/7 on standard time.

"This has been very painful and has involved cuts across the board. But it was about keeping the business going or closure, so it's a good result," said Polestar operations director of manufacturing Mike Bartlett, who has been overseeing events at the troubled plant for the past two months.   

"These changes take out a substantial amount of cost and it puts it onto an even footing. So if we can keep the right work coming in it's viable," Bartlett added.

The changes are being implemented now, and most of the redundancies are expected to be voluntary. It prints for Guardian Newspapers, IPC, Argos, Trinity Mirror and Reader's Digest, among others.

GPMU deputy general secretary Tony Burke said: "Hopefully we have secured the future of Purnell but it will take some time to settle down. There's obviously a lot of concern from our members about the way the plant has been run in the past it's been a merry-go-round of MDs and it needs a long period of stability now."