A FACTORY has confirmed plans to close its facility after nearly 60 years in operation.

The global glue manufacturer Bostik is set to close Sovereign Chemicals in Barrow by the end of December after 56 years.

The Park Road site's 16 employees will be made redundant before Christmas, factory bosses have confirmed.

Bostik, which is headquartered in France, employs around 6,000 people across 40 countries.

The Barrow facility was founded in 1965 and since 1987 the firm has held the royal warrant for its products.

In 2000, the company was bought by Total which was later acquired by French firm Arkema in 2015.

Total is the fifth-largest publicly-traded, integrated international oil and gas company in the world. Also through Bostik, they are a global leader producing speciality chemicals adhesives, sealants and resins for industrial, construction and consumer use.

Arkema has now confirmed that the Barrow site will close by December with the loss of 16 jobs.

A spokesman for Arkema said: "Arkema has undertaken a UK wide distribution network review of all its entities and, as a result, it has been decided that the Sovereign Chemicals warehouse function will close and be transferred to a third party logistics provider based in Stafford.

"This decision affects the viability of maintaining the Sovereign Chemicals site at Barrow.

"Consequently, the Barrow site will be closed and the customer services roles based at Sovereign Chemicals will be transferred to Arkema owned, Bostik UK’s head office in Stafford.

"This decision means that we have entered a period of consultation with the 16 employees affected by the restructuring. As part of the consultation process, we are actively looking at ways to redeploy as many employees as possible into other areas of the Arkema UK business.

"While these conversations are ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment any further.”

Bostik employs 4,700 people in its production facilities and sales operations in 40 countries. Of 51 production sites worldwide, four are facilities in the UK: Stafford, Leicester, Dalton in North Yorkshire and Barrow.

In July 2018, Bostik revealed manufacturing at the Barrow factory would cease, in order to obtain a 'cost advantage', with the loss of 11 jobs.