The agreement satisfies new owner Walstead Investments' conditions to provide ongoing funding to Wyndeham Press Group, which was contingent on the company's proposal being accepted by staff at the site.

Wyndeham chief executive Paul Utting said: "We have a pragmatic workforce who understood the issues and are working with us to see through these changes.

"Obviously, we are sad for those who will lose their jobs, but this agreement will help to secure the future for Heron in a very challenging market."

The proposed changes to terms and conditions, which only affect the Heron site, were accepted by staff against union advice, although Unite stressed that the deal did not breach its national agreement.

Unite national officer Steve Sibbald said: "The national union, the chapels and the branch were not happy with some of the changes to the terms and conditions of employment because it was diminishing certain terms.

"So when it went to ballot vote we were recommending rejection in the hope that we could improve the offer, but the company said that they would not be able to do that and that that would put the company at risk, so obviously the workforce believed that and voted to accept the deal.

"I certainly couldn't blame the workforce for the decision they've made but it was against the recommendations of the national union, the branch and the chapel reps."

According to Sibbald, the union did negotiate "quite substantial improvements" to the redundancy package for the 163 affected staff, which he said were "considerably better than they would have got under state".

It is understood that there could be further smaller redundancies across the group, but that the terms and conditions accepted by Heron's staff were not being pushed through elsewhere within the company.