Scores of jobs could be lost at a Bicester printing firm after the gloomy economy forced it to shut down two presses.

Up to 60 staff at BGP in Launton Road, part of the Goodhead Group, look set to lose their jobs.

Staff have now started a 30 day consultation exercise and will find out their fate next month.

The plant, which employs 500 staff, has blamed the recession and a “tough market.

Chief executive David Holland said: “There is a consultation period and I’m not going to pre-judge that. “We have said we thought 57 jobs could go.

“We are looking at ways to reduce the number, for example, we have quite a lot of temporary workers at the site and maybe that is a way of reducing the number of people losing their jobs.”

He said over the past year the company had invested £30m in new equipment at the Bicester site.

Mr Holland said no decision had been made about which staff would go and would only say the company wanted to retain staff with essential skills.