The global print group confirmed some of its European plans, but declined to reveal details of the UK investment at the Corby plant which gained a boost last week by securing Heat in the Emap review.

In a statement, the group said the UK upgrade was "conditional on the outcome of negotiations with employee representatives."

The deal is believed to centre around agreement on  6m worth of cost savings at Corby. These proposed savings include around 70 redundancies, changes to manning levels, terms and conditions, and salary cuts.

Amicus GPMS is understood to have held meetings with Quebecor's UK and Canadian management over the restructure, which culminated last week.

The proposals have now been put to a ballot of Amicus members at Corby, the outcome of which is expected this week.

Assuming the proposals are approved, it is speculated that two heatset web presses, either 64pp or 72pp will be installed at the plant. The presses are expected to be up and running within 12 months.

"We were disappointed that the deals we struck last year to implement 400 redundancies was unsuccessful. That has to be blamed on the management of the business," said Amicus GPMS East of England branch secretary Vernon Robson. "This will be the final toss of the coin, the union will not enter into any other changes in terms and conditions should this fail."

Quebecor World was unavailable for comment.

Confirmed euro spend
- Charleroi, Belgium: two 4.3m gravure presses

- Austria and Spain: 64pp offset presses

- Mary-Sur-Marne, France: Considering two 64pp presses