MANAGEMENT of Tangerine, the soon-to-be new owners of Monkhill Confectionery at York have been sending out "good signals" about jobs to the 350 people who work at the plant in Low Poppleton Lane.

Tangerine, whose £56 million cash offer for Monkhill has been accepted by owners Cadbury Schweppes, is assessing areas of duplication, but it is also looking at ways of expanding the Monkhill operation at York, Pontefract, Cleckheaton and Chesterfield once it officially takes over at the end of next month.

John Kirk, GMB organiser for the York area, said today that after "very successful" consultations with the management of Tangerine, he was "quite impressed" with the Tangerine management team and encouraged by what they hoped to achieve.

Mr Kirk praised earlier assurances by Tangerine chairman, Steven Joseph, that there would be no factory closures.

He said: "They also wanted to fetch any work which was currently being outsourced to third party suppliers back in-house. That should reinforce the security of the factories.

"They need to evaluate the administrative areas, but the message is that they want to grow the business and that makes me hopeful that jobs will be safe."

He pointed out that some Tangerine directors were familiar with the York plant as well as Monkhill's other factories. "They know the capability and loyalty of the workforce. It is why they purchased the business. They know the products and want to enlarge the range."

He said there would be a series of further consultation meetings between now and the end of February. He was impressed that Tangerine was keen to co-operate in a smooth transfer of terms and conditions.