The oldest printing company in the UK is to close its Reading factory following the loss of a major contract, it has been revealed.

Around 40 people are set to lose their jobs at paperback book printers Cox and Wyman in Cardiff Road, which has been operating in Reading since 1777.

The termination of the business comes after an unsuccessful bid for a multi-million pound, multi-year contact with their main client, publishing giant Penguin Random House, which was won by competitor St Ives Clays.

A source told the Chronicle that investment in the Reading arm of the company had been sparse and money appeared to be channelled into the company’s other sites, including Chippenham and Chatham.

He said: “They don’t know what they’re going to do for jobs.

“There was a decline in business as people aren’t buying paperbacks and reading on technology devices instead, like other printed media going online. People are resigned to the shut down now.”

The firm, owned by CPI books, will shut up shop next month following a 30-day consultation period with workers, many of whom have been employed at the printworks for more than 40 years.

In February 2010 the parent company announced a programme of capital investment which began with an expansion at Cox and Wyman.

This saw the installation of two £500,000 Civeimme automatic stackers and the purchase of a series of post-press section handling equipment, including a new Alfa Avalon N16-50 plating device, to triple production output.

The firm famously delivered a 25,000-copy reprint of Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing just 48 hours after the title was announced the winner of the prestigious Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction in June last year.

In October the company printed 80,000 copies of the 2014 Man Booker prize winner The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flannigan in 72 hours.

In its heyday it was printing national railway timetables and even had a shop at Reading railway station.

Tim Elliot, regional officer at Unite the Union and a representative on CPI’s European Works Council said: “To say the obvious, it’s a real tragedy what’s happened to Cox and Wyman because the company has been there for such a long time. But there has not been any investment there for a few years now which says it all really.

“It’s devestating as all the workers have put a lot of work into the company and it’s so hard these days to find a job in the print industry. There are two big players in the print industry — CPI and Clays — and there were always going to be casualties for whoever lost such a big contract.”

CPI Books declined to comment.