JOBS are on the line at Chard's Oscar Mayer factory as part of a raft of cost-saving measures.

Last month, the News reported that the ready-meals giant was considering ways to increase its profitability after a take-over by an Icelandic company fell through.

A site briefing was issued to staff this week to address the concerns of staff at the factory.

Human resources manager Mike Thomas said: "We continue to review our costs in line with our sales volume and reduce them accordingly, where we can.

"The continual increase in costs of raw materials, utilities and fuel greatly affect our ability to make a profit and therefore we have to look at ways of reducing our internal costs.

"These reviews are covering all our non-production areas. After this review, should there be a need for further redundancies then we will consult with the Works Council accordingly."

Tony Dowling, spokesman for the GMB union, said: "We've been aware of a potential problem there since the company that was going to buy them out didn't.

"It is indirect employees at risk - office staff and hygiene and lab departments - not production staff, but it would be cutting the limbs off the organisation.

"We suggest that any redundancies would be not only unfortunate for Oscar Mayer but bad for the town of Chard."