ONE of the last clothing manufacturers in Bolton will stop production in June and move the work abroad, it has been announced.

In a further blow to Bolton's depleted textile and clothing industry, 18 staff at underwear manufacturers Challioner and Walker, in Bridgeman Place, near Bolton town centre, are now working a 12-week notice period and the firm's products will soon be made abroad.

Four warehouse staff are expected to keep their jobs, although nobody at the firm has been available for comment.

The company established itself as a respected name in the hosiery industry in the 1970s, when Keith Challioner and Arthur Walker set up the firm which is now owned by Caldwell Investments plc.

David Basger, manager of M Holt in Manchester, a customer of Challioner and Walker, said: "The general trend has been for companies to move their operations to India or Pakistan but I wouldn't be surprised if they did move to somewhere like Romania.

"The labour force there is so much cheaper that it makes sense.

"They're only following a number of bigger firms that have gone abroad."

GMB union official Graham Wells, who represents the company's employees, said: "If they were moving production to another European Union country, they would be getting a much bigger pay-out and negotiations would have gone on for longer.

"This Government is not doing enough to make it harder for firms to move their operations abroad where, at the moment, they can have goods manufactured much cheaper."

On June 27, operations will cease at the company's base on the fourth floor of the Globe Hosiery Works, a once important centre of the town's textile industry, which now lies almost empty.

Mr Wells added: "The clothing industry has now all but departed completely from the region and the skills that we have lost will never return. It's a crying shame."

"In this country we have one of the most skilful workforces and that is being allowed to go. I don't think they will want manufacturing skills in this country much longer."