John Carter, managing director of Stralfors UK has left the company "by mutual consent" as part of the move and is replaced by Tony Plummer, the company's operations director.

Stralfors entered into a 30-day consultation with the 65-plus full-time staff at Dartford on 18 January with a view to shedding nearly half of its workforce.

This comes little more than a year since the group brought its Kent-based facilities together under one roof. Speaking then, Carter said the move would "accommodate a larger workforce and new equipment".

According to Plummer the time was right for the group to shift the focus of its London facility.

He said: "We have enjoyed considerable success with our transactional mail business but we are now changing the focus of our Dartford site to provide personalised digital colour print solutions in addition to regular critical mail applications.

"Unfortunately this will mean some redundancies, but ensures that we have a profitable business model to support our core business. I’d like to thank those affected for their contribution and continued loyalty to Stralfors."

Staff at the group's Redruth, Cornwall transactional print business are unaffected by the cuts.