In January this year the company closed its Havers Hill printing works – again with the loss of around 190 jobs.

At the time the company explained that the redundancies were necessary as it had made a decision to to consolidate its gravure printing operations in the UK at two sites – one at a new state-of-the-art facility in Sheffield and another in Pershore.

However, the company's Scarborough operation has been living on borrowed time since the beginning of the century. Polestar Greaves managing director Andy Reynoldson said: "Greaves was spared closure in 2002 having agreed a survival plan to remove costs but unfortunately has been under threat for a number of years due to market forces."

The company – best known for known for printing high- profile colour magazines like Hello! and Women's Weekly – dates back to just after the Second World War.

Decorated RAF war hero and nightfighter pilot Douglas Greaves started his printing business at the junction of Ramshill Road and Royal Avenue after buying a printing machine and realising there was a big demand from stationers. He then went around the country taking photographs of resorts for postcards.

The business, called DH Greaves, later moved to Oriel Works in Oriel Crescent and then to Havers Hill in Eastfield – the site that closed in January. It was sold to the Bradford-based Watmough Holdings in 1969 and became Polestar Greaves in 1998 after a merger of the Watmough printing group with the British Printing Group.

Its website describes the firm as Europe's leading independent printing company with its HQ at Milton Keynes and 20 sites across the UK, Spain and Hungary and 5,300 employees.

In December 2006 workers at Polestar Greaves in Scarborough were told it was "business as usual" despite a massive financial restructuring exercise by its parent company, which had to restructure £814 million to stave off bankruptcy.

At the time Mr Reynoldson said the restructuring would allow the group to move forward on a stable platform and would have no effect on business in Scarborough.

But fears about the future of the Scarborough-based operation have been voiced since Polestar opened its new factory in Sheffield.