More than 150 employees at a Ryedale clothing firm which is a major supplier to Marks & Spencer are to lose their jobs.

Clothing and toiletry manufacturers Dewhirst Group plc has decided to close its menswear factory in Welham Road, Norton, on June 26.

The company's factory shop in Walton Road, Norton, which employs three or four people, will remain open.

News of the factory closure was given to all 160 employees at a meeting yesterday. They have been given three months' notice.

Staff at the factory, most of them women machinists, said they had been told the firm was expanding abroad and no longer needed the Norton operation.

One employee, a single mother of two children, who asked not to be named, said: "It is going to be difficult for us to get other jobs.

"When we were called to a meeting, no one had any idea it was for such bad news."

Another said: "Even the union did not know anything about this announcement. They were only informed yesterday morning."

She said staff had been told some of the work currently carried out at Norton would be shifted to Morocco in future. "I'm speaking out because it's totally unfair."

Mike Williams, group personnel director with Dewhirst, stated: "The primary reason for the closure is the size of the unit. It's basically too small - we cannot get economies of scale out of the unit."

He said: "We are absorbing the current production programme into larger units in the company, principally in the United Kingdom but, admittedly, some of them are in Morocco."

Mr Williams added: "It's a very regrettable decision but, as a company, we have to ensure that we maintain the long-term security of the majority of employees in the UK.

"The last thing we want to do is to put people out of work. Over the last five or six years, we have actually increased employment in the UK by about 500."

The Mayor of Malton, Councillor David Lloyd-Williams, said: "This closure is devastating news for the community.

"I understand High Street shops are facing real competition from factory outlets offering cut-price clothes and imports of cheap clothing from the Far East."

Ian Beecham, president of Malton and Norton Chamber of Trade, said: "It's very sad news for the town and it goes against the general trend at the moment.

"More and more firms are expanding and coming into the area and unemployment has been falling over recent months."

Dewhirst, which has its head office at Driffield in East Yorkshire, showed an operating profit of £13.8 million in half-yearly results unveiled last September.

The company took over the former Maenson's clothing factory in Norton in 1982, after it had been closed for 18 months.

At the time, Dewhirst said it expected to take on some of the 100 staff made redundant by Maenson and hoped eventually to employ up to 140 people - a figure which was later exceeded.

Pre-tax profits for the full year are due to be announced in April. City analysts believe the figure will be about £31.7 million, up £5.3 million on 1996-7, although currency fluctuations could affect the result.

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