General manager Brian Stevenson said the jobs would be cut across the entire company, in bid to make the plant more competitive.

The 30-day consultation began at the end of February (PrintWeek 11 March).

Stevenson said that parent company Abitibi-Consolidated remained committed to the plant, with 1m of new investment being spent on upgrading one of its paper machines.

Bridgewater Paper is one of the UK's three recycled newsprint mills, with a production capacity of 289,000 tonnes per year of both standard and coloured newsprint.

It is owned by Canadian-based Abitibi-Consolidated, one of the world's largest manufacturers of newsprint.