Up to 41 jobs are being lost in Birmingham after an advertising firm announced it was closing a site in the city.

The Unite union said it was devastated after Yell Adworks, which has an office on Hagley Road, announced it was shedding 169 jobs by sending its advertising, design and make-up work to India.

The company, which supports Yellow Pages firm Yell, has begun a 90-day consultation ahead of closing four of its UK studios, including those in Manchester, Bristol and Slough.

Unite said the decision came after a decline in revenue following the UK’s economic downturn after the firm has struggled to fill capacity and their large customer base of small and medium sized businesses has not recovered from the effects of the recession.

However, a spokesman for the firm said the move was part of longer-term plans to find cost efficiencies by investing in production centres across the world.

Tony Burke, Unite’s assistant general secretary, said: “This is devastating news for our members and their families. We have been advised by Yell Adworks that they intend to offshore the production of advertisements for the Yellow Pages directories. Yell Adworks say that the economic downturn has had a significant impact on the sales of advertisements in their directories business.

“There is a 90-day consultation period and we will be meeting chapel reps from the studios as soon as is possible to consider the situation and how we intend to respond.

“This is another body blow for the UK print industry and we will do all we can to help and assist our members at this difficult time.”

Yell Adworks has expanded across the globe and employs more than 1,600 workers, including in India, the Phillipines and Peru.

A Yell Group spokesman said the latest job cuts were part of its business model.

“Yell has a robust business plan to return the business to growth with a commitment to investing in the future, with cost efficiencies an integral part. Regrettably for Yell Adworks this will result in a reduction in the number of locations that we operate from and the number of people we employ in the UK.’’