ONE of Nelson's biggest employers has shed around 80 jobs in a move described as a 'massive blow' to the town's economy.

The redundancies have been made at Cott Beverages, Lindred Road on the Lomeshaye Industrial Estate.

Bosses at the multi-national firm, which is based in Florida, confirmed the job reductions had been implemented yesterday.

Before the cutbacks, the Nelson site employed around 300 people.

The company, which has four plants in the UK, blamed price pressure on premium energy drink brands and increased imports into the UK from Europe aided by the weakening of the euro against the pound.

A worker at the Nelson plant, who did not wish to be named, said staff had received notice of redundancy just before Christmas and the workers affected had the bad news confirmed this week.

He said: "It has been very upsetting for all the individuals affected.

"We are all devastated, particularly as the other three Cott sites in the UK have had no job losses announced.

"It makes us feel like we are scapegoats."

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson said he would be demanding answers from the company.

He said: "It's a massive blow as the firm is a big employer in the town.

"I know many of the staff at Cott have shown loyalty and have been employed there for many years.

"I've been contacted by constituents affected and will be seeking talks with the company's management to see if this can be mitigated."

Councillor Azhar Ali, who represents Nelson South, said the job losses were 'a big blow for Nelson'.

He said: "It's upsetting to lose these solid manufacturing and distribution jobs from Nelson.

"It's maybe a sign the economy isn't growing as fast as we're told by the Government.

"Both the county and Pendle councils are working hard to invest in the borough and I'm expecting some better news about investment to extend Lomeshaye in the next few days."

Jarrod Langhans, director of investor relations at Cott, said: "We have highlighted on a number of occasions that the UK high street retail environment and the UK soft drink market is very competitive and that these factors, plus adverse dollar pound exchange rates, have impacted our UK business unit.

"More specifically, price gaps between premium energy drink brands and value propositions in the category have narrowed significantly over the past 12-18 months and we have also seen increased soft drink import activity into the United Kingdom from continental Europe aided by the weakening of the euro against the pound.

"These factors plus others have led us to develop a multi-year plan to improve the efficiency and cost base of our UK business unit.

"This included the announcement of some headcount reductions during the fourth quarter of 2015 and our announcement of and receipt of planning permission for a new large-scale and efficient warehouse at our largest facility in the UK which should be built and completed over the next couple of years.

"These actions are designed to support our low cost, high customer service philosophy."

Cott produces hundreds of types of fizzy drinks, juices, still and sparkling flavoured waters, energy drinks and ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages, as well as hot chocolate, coffee, malt drinks, creamers, whiteners and cereals.

Globally they distribute to approximately 1.5m customer locations, have 9,500 employees and operates 60 manufacturing and 180 distribution facilities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Mexico.

The company acquired UK-based Macaw Soft Drinks in 2005 which was a privately-owned producer of supermarket brand fizzy soft drinks.