Zoo, Yours and Heat all changed hands in the recent tender review, leaving St Ives with a multimillion pound hole to fill.

A meeting between Amicus representatives and St Ives management took place last week to discuss a 20-point cost-cutting plan.

The plan included reduced sick pay, a move to banked shifts and changes to workers' terms and conditions.

Jon Roberts, manufacturing director at St Ives Web, was keen to play down the significance of the talks.

"It's been made out to be a lot more serious than it is," he said. "Like many UK print firms at the moment, we're attempting to reduce our costs and increase our efficiencies."

Roberts did, however, confirm that if St Ives' salesforce was unable to replace the Emap work and remain competitive, staff would have to be made redundant, although he could not give a figure for what those losses would be.