MORE than 120 jobs could be axed at one of Andover’s landmark companies and biggest employers.

Twinings, based on Walworth Industrial Estate, held a staff meeting on Monday to announce proposals for the Andover site to take over production for the entire UK market.

But changes in export policy would mean some 129 people based in Andover could be made redundant.

The company says the majority of the potential job losses would not happen until 2011.

Twinings proposes to close production at its Newcastle site, affecting 263 employees, and transfer all of its UK production to Andover.

The company would also relocate some of its manufacturing operations closer to its major overseas markets, affecting the Andover jobs with no more overseas production being done in the UK.

Currently two-thirds of the company’s sales are overseas with the vast majority of tea being imported to the UK, blended and then exported.

According to the international supply director Marcus Cotter-Stone, this is not efficient or sustainable, so Twinings wants to expand its operation at JinQiao in China and set up a new site in Poland.

“We have had manufacturing operations overseas for decades and we have now reached the point where we need to move our manufacturing closer to our markets,” he said.

“This is a very difficult but necessary step which will allow Twinings to remain competitive in our markets worldwide and take full advantage of future growth opportunities.”

Employees working in head office roles in Andover such as finance, management and marketing are unaffected.

Twinings has now entered a consultation period and a decision will be made around February on whether to move forward with the proposal.

Andover’s MP Sir George Young said he sympathises with the employees: “This is a blow for all who work on the packing side at Twinings, who will not know who will lose their job for some time,” he said.

“Twinings is one of the town’s best-known employers and it has done a lot for the town since it came here a long time ago.

“Many of the job losses in the town so far have been because of the recession. But these are not due to people in the UK buying less tea from Twinings but because the UK is a less competitive place than it was for production for the overseas market.

“Even when we emerge from recession – which I hope will be soon – we will continue to lose jobs like these unless we address our competitive position in world markets.”

Usdaw, the trade union, condemned the proposals as a betrayal of the workforce. The union says that both sites have, for many years, been highly productive and have embraced change to remain competitive.

Mike Parsonage, union organiser, said Twinings was a business that marketed itself as a quality English product and yet production was going to China and Poland – areas of cheap labour and poor conditions.

He added: “The trade union will fight these proposals in an effort to retain manufacturing jobs in the United Kingdom.”