TOP fabric firm, Liberty, left a workforce in tatters with the announcement it is to close its Burnley distribution centre with the loss of 150 jobs.

The troubled group said the multi-million pound centre and factory shop would go later this year as it unveiled a costly shake-up of the up-market fabrics empire which plunged £17.5 million into the red.

The bombshell news came just six years after the four and a half acre Widow Hill site was officially opened with high hopes and expectations of "jobs for life" as Liberty, famous for its mock-Tudor emporium flagship in London's Regent Street, expanded rapidly through Britain.

But last month the group announced the closure of 20 retail outlets, with 350 job losses, leaving only Regent Street and a small number of airport shops.

That left the Burnley workforce braced for bad news when the full year results and further cost cutting moves were unveiled yesterday.

The latest blow made it a black June week for jobs in Burnley and Rossendale - following hard on news that Waterfoot footwear firm, J.H. Hirst is to axe 119 employees, more than a third of the total workforce.

In Burnley today General and Municipal Workers Union ful-time official Tom Fallows said the Liberty announcement was a tragedy for workers.

He said people had joined the company, which resisted all attempts to unionise the workforce, with hopes of secure, prestige work at a centre which supplied all Liberty's retail outlets.

"It is further evidence that far from coming out of recession, things are still getting worse, no matter what the Government would have us believe."

He added: "We are left to wonder when it is going to end'".

Liberty chief executive Ian Thomson, brought in from the Selfridges group Sears as chief executive in April, said the company had already had contact with possible buyers for the warehouse.

The results for the year to January 27 showed profits before tax and exceptional items down again to £2.1 million from £3.6 million in the previous 12 months.

However, the restructuring programme will cost £18.7 million, which pushed the group into pre-tax losses of £16.6 million, compared with a bottom line profit of £4.2 million last time.

After tax, losses topped £17.5 million.

Losses per share after the exceptional costs totalled 79.63p, compared with earnings of 8.29p.

There is no final dividend.

The new board will aim to capitalise on the strength of the Liberty brand name and is considering opening stores abroad, probably at airports.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.