Factory jobs blow.

Byline: Karen Mclauchlan

Around 70 workers at a Teesside food factory are to lose their jobs - just months after they thought their futures had been made secure.

Irish firm Kerry Foods bought Hibernia Foods' ready meals business in December, including a factory in Hartlepool.

The company said a review of its business had been carried out, with 70 posts set to go from Hartlepool by the beginning of next month.

The news comes just weeks after another former Hibernia factory on Teesside said it was having to cut jobs.

Last month Country Style Foods axed 69 posts at its Stockton plant after taking over the former Hibernia site in January.

A Kerry Foods spokesman said: "We want to grow and develop this business, but we have to do that on a firm footing. We need to have good foundations - so we have carried out restructuring to ensure the future viability of the plant."

He said staff affected by the decision were being given the chance to take up "significant" job opportunities at the company's site in Durham.

He said around 180 were still employed at the Hartlepool site.

Alan Milne, regional officer with the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers union, added: "It's disappointing that we are seeing job losses at another former Hibernia site."

He said the business was suffering from the increasingly low prices demanded from supermarkets.

"Hibernia was not making a profit and was producing products below cost price," he added. "No company can continue to do that."

But Mr Milne said Kerry Foods had been positive about the future of the Hartlepool site.

"They have given us a strong commitment about the future of the site and eventually hope to employ more people."

Last month Country Style Foods bosses also gave their commitment to a long term future on Teesside.

Tony Wood, chairman of the 150-year-old family firm, said: "We haven't just bought the business to make quick buck - we intend to be here for the long term. There has been no investment here in the last two years and we are having to spend a lot of money which should have been spent before."

The Stockton plant makes supermarket own-label frozen desserts and also has the licence to produce Sara Lee branded frozen dessert products.

Hibernia Foods went into administration last October.