The Group is understood to have informed staff at the site of a smaller number of confirmed redundancies, but it is consulting with them and the union over changes to terms and conditions, including pay, which could mitigate the final number of job cuts.

The site employs around 200 staff and the proposed cuts would most likely centre around a reduction of the shifts run at the plant.

However, a spokesman for St Ives said that the company does not comment on industrial relation matters.

This latest consultation process follows the proposed closures of the group's Crayford multimedia packaging site in April, and the St Ives Web Andover facility in May.

Crayford has now been closed, with the sites 12-colour B1 Manroland 700 DirectDrive press, the first in the UK, in the process of being moved to St Ives Direct's Bradford site. The firm is currently reviewing its options for the Optima Park, Crayford  freehold site, which it bought for £5.25m in 2001. Around 20 of the site's 129 staff are understood to have been found alternative roles within the group.

The Andover site, the lease on which expires early next year, is set to close in October, with the majority of its 100-strong workforce to be made redundant in September, with the remainder released in October.