The move to a new production site “elsewhere in the South island” will bring some job losses but Blue Star said it would do everything it could to lessen the blow.

Blue Star said the 53-staff operation will retain a sales, pre-production, distribution and digital hub in Christchurch, but continued aftershocks have made it “too risky to locate precision printing equipment in the Christchurch area”.

Chief executive David Jupe said the company was undecided on a location and had not yet determined the number of redundancies.

“We have been communicating with our staff every step of the way and we will keep doing so,” he said.

“We will be working with our Christchurch employees individually over the coming weeks to assist them in exploring their options and the opportunities open to them throughout Blue Star Group.”

“For some of these people work is just one part of it, the people of Christchurch have really suffered,” said Jupe.

The Spectrum site, which is just south of the Christchurch CBD, has been closed since the quake and the company is not sure whether any equipment can be salvaged.

The sheetfed printing facility has been able to outsource work to other Blue Star sites as well as printers in the Christchurch region.

Blue Star acquired Spectrum Print in 2008.

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