A greetings card company is to close with the loss of 195 jobs, write David Duffy and Roseena Parveen.

Abingdon firm Burgess blamed the decision to shut its works at the Thames View industrial park on "highly volatile and dynamic changes taking place in the greetings-card market".

It said talks had begun with employees and unions and the closure was expected to take place within three months. It added that 60 per cent of its customers were now owned by groups with their own production capacity and that because of the high cost of the Abingdon site, it had been impossible to cut production and keep the plant viable.

Chief executive Brian Dudley said: "The decision to close has not been easy, especially when considering the job losses.

"This action is unavoidable. When you face a market that is rapidly changing, you have to be brave and face the facts. That often means taking tough decisions." Burgess, which was the subject of a management buyout in 1998, is part of UK print and communication group Bezier.

The parent, a printing group formed from a 53m buyout of the Wace group's printing business, employs more than 1,000 people in the UK and Ireland across seven sites at Abingdon, Boston, Bristol, Dublin, London, Poole and Wakefield.

Earlier this year Bezier denied reports that greetings-card company Hallmark had expressed an interest in taking over Burgess.