A MANUFACTURING company which has provided employment in Leominster for 60 years is to quit the town.

Cosmetics maker SLG Beauty, formerly Lambournes Ltd, says it has outgrown its Ryelands Road site.

It is planning a December move to "a prestigious new location" in the centre of Gloucester - a 60,000 square foot factory in St Catherine Street.

The Leominster factory's 65 workers will be offered jobs at the new site and places on a free bus.

SLG bosses say the firm is expanding and it was hoped the move would mark a long period of growth.

"We have substantially outgrown the Leominster site," said co-managing director Miles Dunkley.

"It is necessary to re-house our company into a modern facility large enough for our current scale of business.

"We are hoping that as many staff as possible will remain with us by taking advantage of the free transport we will provide between Leominster and Gloucester."

The company is also relocating its financial HQ at Innsworth, Gloucester, with seven staff, to the new site. Eleven sales and marketing staff at Cheltenham will be unaffected.

Lambournes began in Birmingham in 1868 making spats, braces and buttons.

In the 1940s the firm set up a factory at Burgess Street, Leominster, making cufflinks and powder puffs and later moved production to Ryelands Road.

The factory provided hundreds of Leominster people with full time and casual work over the years.

"Many Leominster people were able to earn a bit of extra income there," said former mayor Pauline Davies.

"I worked as a dental nurse by day and made powder puffs in the evening at Lambournes - it paid for a holiday at Blackpool."

In 1998 Lambournes became part of the Synlatex Lambournes Group (SLG), an international supplier of cosmetic applicators and beauty accessories.

Its brands include the Cosmopolitan range, Velvotan and girl2go.