AROUND 120 jobs are set to go when one of East Lancashire's last footwear firms finally gives up manufacturing.

Newmans, which has been making shoes in Blackburn for 63 years, says it is being forced to give up its long-running battle against cheap imports.

It has told workers it is proposing to stop manufacturing in November and instead concentrate on distributing and selling imported shoes.

Around 120 factory jobs are expected to be lost with between 10 and 20 employees remaining in the other parts of the business, which Newmans said it plans to expand.

The last few years has seen the footwear industry - once one of East Lancashire's biggest employers - all but lost in the face of cheap imports.

The major high street chains and catalogue companies buy nearly all their main footwear ranges from abroad, in particular the Far East. China, where weekly wages are around £6, now accounts for almost half the world's footwear production.

Managing director Michael Newman said the Garden Street firm had invested heavily in new machinery and designs to try and secure the future of manufacturing and had made the firm a specialist in completing small orders with very quick response times. "It is most disappointing that these strengths and others are now of little relevance compared with the enormous price differentials between the imports and our products."

He said it was now impossible to continue to manufacture cost effectively.

Mr Newman said he deeply regretted the effect the end of manufacturing would have on employees. "We have always paid a high regard to the welfare of all employees and continually endeavoured to maintain the employment of many loyal and hard working people for as long as possible. The staff here have been fantastic," he said.

Mr Newman said some of the workers at the factory had only started there after losing their jobs at other East Lancashire manufacturers.

"Some of them have been through all this before," he added.

Worker Paul Charnock, who has been with the firm for 11 years, said employees were shocked by the announcement.

"It is bad but I think the company has done everything it could and has been straight with us," said Paul, 35, of Arthur Way, Blackburn.

"The problem is trying to find jobs outside of the footwear industry."

Eight months ago, almost 300 workers lost their jobs at Lambert Haworth's Greenbridge works in Rawtenstall - the latest in a long line of factory closures in the footwear industry.

And earlier this year another Blackburn manufacturer, J Walsh, went into receivership. The only major footwear manufacturer left in East Lancashire is century-old E Sutton, which employs around 280 in Bacup. There are also a handful of smaller manufacturers specialising in niche markets. FROM PAGE 1

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