FOOT and mouth disease has forced one of the Isle of Sheppey's most established businesses to sell part of its company with four resultant redundancies.

Sheppy Fertilisers, of Rushenden Road, Queenborough, is in the process of selling its sales department to Irish fertiliser firm IAWF, one of the largest blenders of fertilisers in the UK.

Joint managing director Paul Stevens said that since the outbreak the agricultural market has become so unstable that the sale was a necessary move.