SEVENTY jobs at a Bolton pizza firm are to be lost with the scrapping of night production at Stateside Foods, Westhoughton.

Forty night-shift workers will lose their jobs along with another 30 jobs going from elsewhere within the company.

The job cuts are blamed on falling trade and the cuts will reduce the work force to around 400.

The news comes just weeks after Home Office officials swooped on the factory and arrested 21 people suspected of being illegal workers.

Since the raid, eight people from Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia, have been jailed for gaining employment by using fake documents.

A spokesman at the firm confirmed the job cuts were planned but refused to comment further.

A 30-day consultation period between employees' representatives and bosses started yesterday and workers are expected to begin leaving shortly after.

Graham Williams, regional industrial organiser at the Transport and General Workers Union, said today the job losses were "hugely disappointing".

Stateside makes pizzas and pizza bases for supermarket chains including Asda, Safeway, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Morrisons and Somerfield.

The company was bought out last year by Freiburger, one of Europe's largest frozen pizza providers. Sixty jobs were lost last year when the firm closed a plant at Haslingden and transferred production to the factory on the Wingates Industrial Estate.

One worker who asked not to be named said: "We were told that things were going well after the company was bought out by a German firm and then this happens. It is a big shock."

The TGWU does not have official recognition at the factory but represents hundreds of staff members at the site.

Mr Williams said: "They have said that they will only run the two shifts from now on and just keep hygiene staff in at night.

"The reason they have given for that is a decline in trade. There will be a 30 days consultation period but, because we haven't got recognition as a union within the firm, we won't be involved in that."