Gillingham mainly prints publications for clients including Haymarket, Emap and VNU.

The closure was announced last Friday (1 February), and the necessary consultation period has begun. It will involve 210 redundancies and is expected to cost St Ives around 5.7m.

"This is a depressing decision to have to make, but our team has been reviewing the situation for some time," said group managing director Brian Edwards. "There is too much capacity chasing too little volume, and weve seen magazine paginations fall off. Gillingham is a leasehold site, it doesnt have many years to run on the lease and its not an ideal size or shape for current technology."

The group hopes to retain all the Gillingham contracts. "We have under-utilised capacity elsewhere that will fulfil clients requirements."

VNU production director Joanne Hurst said: "Im so sad to see a good workforce facing this kind of situation, although business concerns are paramount."

Gillingham runs a Baker Perkins G16, two Komori System 38s, a Komori mini-web and two sheetfed presses. It also has perfect binding and stitching. Most of the kit will be sold.

The GPMU issued a statement opposing the closure, criticising St Ives for not giving prior warning and calling for "urgent legislation on information and consultation laws".

"There has to be previous consultation," said deputy general secretary Tony Burke. "We are in discussions with a number of firms in the web offset sector about their problems. We accept its a tough time but these firms have discussed their difficulties without making an announcement that they are closing."

However, Edwards responded: "We believe we have a responsibility to tell our employees, customers and the Stock Exchange before anyone else."

Story by Jo Francis and Gordon Carson