UNION officials were due to meet bosses at a doomed textile mill today.

Officers from the GMB and other unions were holding talks with Bairdtex managing director Michael Boyes about the firm's decision to close the Trawden factory with the loss of 130 jobs.

Paul Hoggarth, local officer with the GMB, said: "There was no indication from the company at any time that total closure was on the cards.

"There are a number of facts and figures we have to go through and some questions we want to ask the firm.

"My view is that it's an issue of pound notes on the shareholders' report rather than our members' livelihoods."

The firm, a major supplier of colour woven fabrics to High Street giant Marks & Spencer, has been hit by falling demand and cut-price foreign imports.

Mr Boyes told shocked staff: "The industry has become increasingly competitive, and lower cost producers based outside the UK now supply the market at prices which are well below the level which can be sustained by a UK producer.

"We recognise the outstanding effort which has been made by everyone at Bairdtex to survive within this fiercely competitive industry but, regretably, market forces are such that the business is no longer viable."

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