End of the line for print workers

A printworks has shut its doors after more than 150 years of business.

The Polestar Purnell Printworks in Paulton, Somerset, closed after the last shift on New Year's Eve leaving more than 400 people unemployed.

Some 28 people will remain until the final decommissioning in March. The factory had to close after forecasted losses in excess of £5m in 2005.

Former employee Martin Shepherd told the BBC workers had taken the closure very well and were being positive.

Management buyout

"Everyone is very cheerful, nobody is down in the dumps about it," he said.

"Hopefully everyone will find a new adventure - when one door closes another one opens."

In 2005, staff accepted a pay cut to try to save it, but the plant had become inefficient and was losing money and talks over a possible management buyout came to nothing.

The plant grew from a cottage industry set up by the Purnell family in 1849 to become Europe's biggest printworks.

But over the last 30 years, it has suffered from what it described as a combination of under investment in new technology and increasingly stiff foreign competition.