WORKERS at a Winsford distribution centre will have their future decided in the next few days.

Staff at the Kwik Save depot, based on the industrial estate, have been uncertain about their jobs since last March when Somerfield took over the Kwik Save chain, but the waiting will soon be over.

A crunch meeting between bosses and union representatives will take place on Friday morning, after which an announcement on the workers' futures will be made.

The axe appears to be falling, however, as a round of compulsory redundancies has seen some staff already lose their jobs, with a further 43 workers applying for early release.

In all, 200 jobs could go if the worst comes to the worst and Somerfield decide not to invest in Winsford.

There is, however, hope among some workers that the Road Three depot will not be shutting immediately, but the uncertainty is still causing much distress.

One said: "We have heard that Somerfield has worked out a budget for next year but the make up of it is anyone's guess.

"We might not be shutting straight away but we are definitely losing a lot of lines. At the moment there are more questions than answers and there are a lot of rumours."

Somerfield has said that the reason it is losing lines is because the company is replacing Kwik Save stock with its own brands and this will all be effective from Easter.

It has not yet confirmed whether the depot will remain open after the restructuring is complete.

A company spokeman said: "We are due to address depot staff at a meeting on Friday. We announced at a meeting with union representatives on January 25 that we were discussing our distribution strategy for the future.

"Plans and details of the strategy will be announced to all depot staff after we have had the opportunity to talk to the representatives."

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