A PLANT nursery in Swindon is set to close with the loss of around 40 jobs.

Blackwell Bros International Plants Ltd, which supplies houseplants to major supermarkets such as Asda and Sainsbury's is moving its production to the site of parent company Lingarden's site in Wisbech Cambridgeshire.

The firm, based on the Industrial Estate, will close on Thursday after workers were given 30 days' redundancy notice.

In the company's official statement, issued to employees and sent to the Evening Advertiser, Martin Brown, managing director of Lingarden said: "Regretfully, I have to advise you that we propose to consolidate our manufacturing resources into fewer sites by announcing intention to discontinue operating in Swindon and transferring the capacity to Wisbech by the end of June 2003.'

He added: "A consultation forum will be established with employee representatives to discuss the procedure and method for handling the job losses."

Employee Matthew Blackmore, 19, from Purton, who has worked for the firm for three years said: "We were all a bit put out by the news. We were only taken over recently and at the time they said that there would be no job losses.

"Since then, we have gone through three rounds of redundancies.

"I have no idea what I am going to do now."

Blackwell Bros was acquired by Lingarden, of Spalding, in June 2000, as part of a strategy to offer a one-stop-shop for supplying flowers, bulbs and houseplants to major supermarket and DIY chains.

At the time, George Blackwell, chairman of Blackwell Brothers said: "The association of Lingarden will help accelerate the next stage in the development of our potted plant operation.

"This should be very good news for anyone associated with Blackwell Brothers."

The employees were told by Lingarden at the time that their jobs were safe.