WORKERS were today in turmoil at Nestl Rowntree's KitKat factory after a number of senior posts were axed in what bosses described as "a review of shift managers".

At least two managers have already been escorted from the Wigginton Road plant without receiving an explanation and staff remain in the dark about the dismissals.

One Nestl employee, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Evening Press there were fears that further job losses were in the pipeline.

Popular shift managers Scott Carlton and Leo Martin are both understood to have been asked to leave the plant at lunchtime last Friday. It is believed both have been offered redundancy packages.

The Nestl source said workers were left "baffled" when their managers were marched from the building "out of the blue, for no apparent reason".

The source said: "These two dedicated managers were escorted off site. They were both very good and did a lot of extra hours to keep the plant going.

"We have had a lot of different senior managers over the past six years, and they were the most dedicated to have survived the last few years."

The source expressed concern that Nestl bosses might make decisions that put further jobs at risk.

A spokeswoman for the company said: "We have recently undertaken a review of our shift managers within the KitKat plants.

"We are currently in discussion with the small number of individuals affected by this review. Therefore it is inappropriate to comment further at this stage."

Neither Mr Carlton nor Mr Martin wished to comment on the matter.

Local GMB union organiser John Kirk said he had not heard about the review.

Earlier this year, morale at the Nestl Rowntree factory was said to be "rock bottom" after the company missed its profit target in 2004 and staff missed out on performance-related bonus payments.

However, that news came only days after chief executive Alastair Sykes said the company's 2004 quarterly market share had improved from 16.3 per cent to 17.5 per cent, and KitKat had generated £260 million of sales and six per cent growth.

Earlier this month, Nestl announced that its net profits jumped by 32 per cent in the first six months of 2005 over the same period last year.

Nestl said its first-half profits hit 3.68 billion Swiss francs ($2.93 billion), up from 2.78 billion francs ($2.21 billion) in the first six months of last year.

The rise, helped by strong sales growth in North America, beat market analysts' expectations.

Updated: 10:08 Wednesday, August 31, 2005