THE workforce at a struggling printing concern has agreed an eleventh-hour deal to save up to 250 jobs.

However, staff at Polestar Greaves, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, have had to take cuts in pay and holidays and work flexible hours.

Despite the agreement, the bindery section of the company, responsible for the production of upmarket colour supplements for newspapers including the Sunday Times, and for the printing of luxury catalogues and holiday brochures, will close on Friday, with the loss of 100 full and part-time jobs, said a spokesman for the parent company, Polestar Group.

He said the new agreement would put the company in a good position to compete more favourably.

Richard Watson, of print union GPMU, said: "We believe this agreement will give a leg-up to Polestar and put Greaves back into profit, as well as give Scarborough's economy a boost."

Thirteen jobs are being lost in the printing plant.

Union leaders said they believed the company's plant at Eastfield had suffered from a lack of investment and as a result, lucrative contracts had been lost.

"We are now going to press them to make that investment," they said.

The Polestar Group nationally has made a reported loss of £5m in the past year.