SHOCKED union leaders will meet Bury's two MPs today (Fri May 5) in the wake of the "devastating" closure announcement surrounding the town's Bibby and Baron factory.

The stunned workforce has been told the 132-year-old Dumers Lane paper bag manufacturers will shut in October with 180 job losses.

Bosses of British Polythene Industries (BPI), which own the business, blame the closure on cheap foreign imports and the strength of the pound.

Tuesday's announcement was delivered after all the staff had been summoned by letter to a meeting with management.

Many of the workers are scheduled to leave in August ahead of the full closure three months later.

Production will be transferred to a BPI plant at Midsomer Norton in Somerset, where 50 jobs are to be created.

Mr John Smith, divisional managing director of BPI, said some of those facing redundancy could apply for these posts. "But it depends whether or not any Bury people would wish to move to Somerset," he stressed.

Commenting on the closure news, Mr Smith added: "It's absolutely devastating. The business has been an important part of Bury's industrial community for so long. It's tragic."

He said BPI had invested in Bibby and Baron since they bought the Bury firm in 1996.

But despite a healthy order book, allied to shift pattern changes and cost-cutting exercises, Bibby and Baron was not sufficiently profitable.

In the past two years, the company has shed more than 140 staff.

The site has been a home for polythene and paper bag manufacturing since 1868.

Bibby and Baron currently produce paper bags for the food and fast food markets.

Those facing job losses are members of two main unions at the plant, the AEEU and GPMU. A 90-day consultation period is currently under way and bosses and union representatives are to meet on Monday.

Dave Hargreaves, GPMU branch officer, said: "This is devastating for the town and the local economy.

"We are in negotiations with the firm to look at alternatives.

"As well as discussing redundancy terms, we will be discussing the possibility of keeping jobs at Bury on a smaller scale."

Mr Hargreaves and union officials will be meeting with the Bury North MP David Chaytor and his Bury South counterpart Ivan Lewis today.

This is the second major industrial blow to hit Bury in recent weeks. Last month, textile firm Bentwood Bros. closed with the loss of 108 jobs.