REDUNDANCIES have been announced by a Dursley manufacturing company, with more expected to come from another major employer in the area in the coming weeks.

Lister Petter in Dursley and Kerry Group’s food manufacturing facility in Cam are both in consultation with their employees as they look set to ship their jobs overseas.

Up to 45 jobs are to be axed by Lister Petter at its Dursley factory and at its facility in Hardwicke.

The firm, which employs 190 staff and has been in Dursley for almost 150 years, had already moved its parts operation to Hardwicke in 2012. Director Pat Comer said it would enable the company to increase its flexibility and competitiveness by moving its operations to the USA and the Middle East.

He added that despite recovering strongly from the downturn of 2012, the “macroeconomic challenges” of the withdrawal of western banks from emerging markets as well as unrest in the Middle East and Africa led to the “de-centralisation”.

Lister Petter is now to focus on its markets in the Middle East and Africa, which account for 65 per cent of its global sales.

“This is part of a review of all our operations worldwide and we understand how difficult these processes are for the whole organisation,” he said. Another major employer in the area which is looking to move its workforce overseas is Irish-based food company Kerry Group, which plans to cut up to 44 jobs at its plant at Draycott Mills in Cam, where 65 people are employed. Kerry corporate affairs spokesman, Frank Hayes, would not confirm how many redundancies there would be. The company is looking to move its research and development department to a new purpose-built centre in Ireland, but Mr Hayes denied that they were talking about closing the Cam facility completely.

“Like all industries it is quite competitive so We need to improve our business efficiency. It’s a question of meeting future requirements and acknowledge that we work in a competitive industry,” he said.