OKEHAMPTON was this week reeling from news of yet another factory closure.

Kerry Ingredients on Exeter Road Industrial Estate employs 106 people.

The company aims to consolidate its business to its site in Tenbury Wells in?Worcestershire. The Okehampton factory is likely to close for good in March 2012.

The news comes in the wake of redundancies at the Polestar, Robert Wiseman's Dairies and Browne's Chocolates factories.

The regeneration group set up to help Okehampton following those closures met on Tuesday, to start discussions on the situation and how to help those with their jobs at risk.

Kerry Ingredients workers were told the news upon arrival at the factory on Friday morning. Staff will be offered the opportunity to transfer to the Worcestershire factory once the Okehampton site is closed. In the meantime the factory will remain open as normal.

Spokesman for Kerry Ingredients Okehampton Frank Hayes said: 'We feel that the Okehampton factory is on a restrictive site, with little room for future investment and business growth.

'Our other plant in Tenbury Wells offers a much bigger scope for development, further investment and growth.

'The consultation period will look at whether consolidating the business onto one site is a good course of action. If that is the case, we would consolidate the business at the Tenbury Wells site.

'The one hundred and six employees at Okehampton would be offered the choice of redeployment, and if those who can take up that option decide to, we would support them financially.

'The Okehampton factory will probably be closed by the end of the first quarter of 2012.'

Okehampton mayor Maureen McDonald said that while the latest news was obviously not good, the town was now more prepared to help those who may lose their jobs.

She said: 'We have the Foodbank, and the job centre facilities at the Ockment Centre, so we are more geared up to deal with it.

'The regeneration group have met, picked up on it and are looking at the situation. It is bad news, affecting jobs and leaving another empty factory in the town, but we should be better equipped to combat it.'

Tim Jones, chair of the Devon and Cornwall Business Council, said the factory was 'definitely going to close' following the 90-day consultation period.

'The reason behind the impending closure is to do with market consolidation and the recession, rather than Okehampton specifically. Market symptoms have caused this to happen.

'While there will be job opportunities for the ex-workforce, it's frankly unrealistic for the workers to relocate themselves.

'There is quite a big local knock-on effect with the closure — an additional twenty jobs to do with the supply chain could well be lost.'

The news comes as the town looked to be on the road to recovery following the redundancies made at Polestar, Brownes's Chocolates and Robert Wiseman's Dairies earlier this year.

Last week Devon County Council stated the emergency package put together by the council in response to the loss of 350 jobs was having a 'significant impact'.