MORE than 70 workers at a factory producing the Sunny Delight soft drink have been told they will be out of a job within the next five months as production is moved to Somerset.

A union today blamed the decision to axe around 25 jobs at Gerber Foods, Little Harwood, by the end of September and close down the operation by January on a fall in sales.

But Proctor and Gamble, which owns the brand, said it was still a strong competitor in the drinks market and that the decision was taken in a bid to improve customer service.

The factory, on Willow Street, makes and bottles the soft drink, which union representatives claim has lost a significant share of the market.

"Only 18 months ago the site was doing extremely well and was running seven days a week, 24 hours a day with 170 workers," said Sandra Blight, the regional officer for the GMB Union. "But about a year ago Sunny Delight took a nose dive and market figures were dropping off quite considerably." She said 12 voluntary redundancies followed before 36 compulsory job losses. Now employees have been told that 25 jobs are to go by September with a complete closure expected by January 2001.

Mrs Blight said the union and the company had looked at every available option for the site and its 72 employees.

"We have looked at what the alternatives are although it doesn't appear that there is anything other than the possibility of the site being sold as a going concern but that looks quite bleak."

A spokesman for Proctor and Gamble, which owns the Sunny Delight brand, said the drink was still a strong competitor in the soft drink market. "There was an unexpected demand when Sunny Delight first came out and we cannot expect that level to be maintained but we have a good level of loyal users," she said.

She said the decision to close the Little Harwood site was made in a bid to improve customer service and operations were being transferred to the head office site in Bridgewater, Somerset.

"The production is moving to Bridgewater simply to have all the production in one place so we can optimise the production and the distribution to best service our customers.

"The closure of Little Harwood was a joint decision between Proctor and Gamble and Gerber Foods," she said.

Andrew Blight, chief executive for Gerber Foods, told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph that the Little Harwood site was not producing the volumes of Sunny Delight it used to. "We produce what Proctor and Gamble tell us to produce.

"It is no responsibility of ours to sell or market the product," said Mr Biles.

"It became economically unviable to produce from Blackburn, we have not been operating at full capacity there for a number of months.

"It was with great regret that we took the decision and rest assured we will do all we can to help our workers in Blackburn."

As workers filed out of the factory they told of their disappointment at the job losses.

Roger Brookens, one of the three shop stewards, said workers were "gutted."

"There are people who have been there a long time.

"They will get a good redundancy but it does not compensate for people losing their jobs."