TELEPHONE book printers RR Donnelley, based in rural North Yorkshire, will close at the end of the year with a loss of about 200 jobs.

Unite, the country’s largest union, is due to have talks with the management at the Flaxby plant in a bid to secure as many jobs as possible and to ascertain the causes for the closure.

The company was based in Boroughbridge Road in York until 2001. It was famed for printing the Yellow Pages since the 1930s.

Unite regional officer Chris Daly said: “This is a bitter blow for the workforce and their families as well as the local economy. These are well-paid jobs that are under threat and won’t be easily replicated in rural North Yorkshire.

“We are due to have a meeting with the management next week – the day has yet to be confirmed – with a view to securing the best deal possible for our members. Obviously, we would like to secure all the jobs under threat.

“The company prints telephone directories for the UK and foreign markets. It had moved into other markets and has been printing Avon for a number of years. We are not sure at this stage what has precipitated the closure announcement.

“This is an American-owned company and one of the avenues we will be discussing is redeployment to another of its sites in the UK.

“We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to support our members at what is a traumatic time for them.”