THE LOCAL textile industry was reeling today after the announcement of more than 220 job losses and factory closures. Workers at Star Vale Ltd, Horwich were told on Friday that the specialist fabric finishers will shut at the end of this week with the loss of the 65 remaining jobs. And shocked workers at three Coats Viyella factories in the area have been informed that more of their jobs will have to be axed.

Coats Viyella at Bradley Fold is losing 64 jobs with the closure of one of three weaving sheds at Fold Mill.

A further 74 jobs are being axed with the closure of its spinning plant at Howe Bridge, Atherton and seven jobs will go with the closure of warehousing at Bridge Hall, Bury and the moving of operations into the empty weaving shed at Fold Mill.

In addition, the Coats Viyella Whitefield factory will close and its work moved to Farnworth, Salford and Howe Bridge and Swinton, meaning a minimum of 12 redundancies. The jobs are expected to go by Easter after consultations with the unions. A spokesman for CV Home Furnishings said the redundancies had come as a result of restructuring of its operations in the North-west.

"This is being carried out in response to difficult trading conditions, to reduce costs and to improve product quality," he said.

But one stunned worker, who asked not to be named, told the BEN: "We were totally shocked at the news. We were told at a staff meeting before Christmas that the firm was trading well." Star Vale Ltd, which bleaches and applies special finishes to cotton cloth, had been put up for sale by its parent company Whitecroft plc in early December after they decided to concentrate on its industrial lighting and building products sections.

But no buyer was forthcoming and so the decision was taken on Friday to close at the end of this week.

Star Vale, in Star Lane, has suffered two lots of large scale redundancies in recent years.

In 1994, 90 jobs went out of the 230-strong workforce and a further 90 jobs went in June 1997 with management blaming the poor state of domestic trade and an increase in imported dye and printed fabric.

A spokesman for the firm said that the closure, although sad, was not unexpected.

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