STAFF at a Kent bakery face redundancy after being told that all production is to transfer to Blackburn in Lancashire from early next year.

The news has stunned the 130 workers at Hoppers Farmhouse Bakery in Sea Street at Herne Bay. They had thought the future was rosy.

The bakery in Sea Street is to close with the loss of all 130 jobs.

Laurence Willis, a quality assessor at the bakery, said: “Things were bad before but then they started improving and all was looking rosy. Now this.

“People don’t know what they’re going to do. There’s talk of offering jobs up north but people round here are very close. They’re not going to want to move that far.”

Staff were told the news by Peter Griffiths, chief executive of Interlink Foods PLC which owns the company.

Some employees will be offered jobs in the North West but the feeling within the Herne Bay factory is one of betrayal.

Mr Willis joined Hoppers almost five years ago but many staff have worked at the Herne Bay bakery since it opened in 1993 when it relocated from Chartham Hatch.

It was then in the control of founder, chairman and managing director David Hopper who sold the business to Interlink on retirement in 2004.

“We had not anticipated this news when we sold,” Mr Hopper said this week. “Having put 32 years of work into it, it is very disappointing.”

In a notice to Hoppers employees, Interlink’s Mr Griffiths said: “It is hoped that some of the staff at Hoppers will be found new positions elsewhere in the group but the directors very much regret that redundancies are inevitable.

“The company is now therefore entering a minimum of 90 days consultation. Further announcements will be made as the consultation takes place.”

A committee is to be set up consisting of union leaders and three representative members of Hoppers staff who are not members of the Allied Bakers Union.”