THE Boddingtons brewery at Strangeways in Manchester will close by February 2005 with the loss of 55 jobs.

Managers from Interbrew UK, the Belgian owner of the former family owned brewery, made the announcement to staff at 7am on Thursday morning.

Brewing of Boddingtons beer - branded the "cream of Manchester" - is to be switched to South Wales and Preston, said officials from the Transport and General Workers Union.

Union leaders have pledged to fight the closure plans.

The company will transfer Boddingtons cask-based brewing to the Manchester-based Hydes Brewery, which already brews Trophy Bitter under contract for Interbrew UK.

At the same time, it is intended that non-cask ales currently produced at Boddingtons will be transferred to Interbrew UK's breweries in Samlesbury, near Preston, Magor in South Wales and Wellpark, Glasgow.

These non-cask ales, which include Boddingtons Draught nitrokeg and Gold Label Strong Ale, account for 90 per cent of the production output at Boddingtons.