The closure of the Dairy Crest factory at Carmarthen on Friday marks a new phase in the development of its sister plant at Haverfordwest.

The company has assured 100 staff at the Merlins Bridge factory that it is committed to this site and has no plans to scale down operations there.

Their 280 colleagues at the Johnstown cheese cutting plant were told last January that their jobs were being axed as part of Dairy Crests plans to concentrate its cheese pre-pack operations in North Wales and Somerset. Some jobs may be transferred to the Maelor creamery where Dairy Crest is investing £10 million.

Uncertainty over how the Haverfordwest and Carmarthen factories would fit into Dairy Crests restructuring plans had been simmering since it was taken over from Unigate last year.

Dairy Crest has consistently denied Haverfordwest was part of its rationalisation programme. A review of its pre-pack operations has led to the loss of 900 jobs across the country.