Kraft Foods who had previously made a pledge to keep the Cadbury’s Somerdale factory at Bristol open, have now backtracked and confirmed the factory will close. This is yet another blow for the UK economy as up to 400 jobs may be lost.

Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary has expressed his disappointment and said that when he met the firm’s representatives last week, they had not given him any suggestion of their plans.

Kraft Foods said that Cadbury’s had already planned the closure of the factory, but they thought they would be able to keep it open, and it was with reluctance that they felt that was no longer an option. Apparently Cadbury’s have already spent £100 million on a new factory in Poland and production will be moved there later this year.

The factory here will be closed by 2011 as such huge investment had already been made in Poland and it would be too expensive to repeal the closure in the UK. Kraft had spent 5 months sealing the deal to gain Cadbury and this will be a massive setback for employees who had thought their jobs were now safe. We wonder if jobs will continue to be lost in this way, and how this will affect Kraft’s reputation? What do you think? For more on this story go to Sky News.