The group has begun consultations with the workforce at the Oxfordshire facility, which it acquired last year after paying £5.1m for the assets following the collapse of Polestar.

Wyndeham Bicester employs around 280 staff and runs 24/7. It prints magazines and catalogues for customers including Time Inc UK and Private Eye.

Paul Utting, chief executive of Wyndeham parent Walstead Group, said the firm was consulting on changes that would allow it to flex its available capacity to cope with fluctuating demand.

“We’ve taken a reasonable and sensible amount of time to look at the business properly and to determine whether the amount of capacity we have is appropriate to the needs of the marketplace,” he explained.

“The market is becoming more seasonal and we want to be able to run all our assets at the busiest times of the year, while coping better with seasonal downturns and also managing seasonal peaks.”

PrintWeek understands that the proposals involve reducing shifts on the site’s oldest 72pp Lithoman and a 16pp Komori cover press, along with one stitching line and two perfect binding lines including the giant 32-station Heidelberg UB binder.

“We will retain the site’s key assets and the skills to run them,” Utting added.

Bicester runs six web offset presses: four 64/72pp Manroland Lithoman models, a Komori System 38 and a Manroland Polyman 16pp press.