BRAKE Bros, the multi-million pound supplier of chilled, frozen and fresh foods, is shutting its ready meals factory in Kent with the loss of up to 60 jobs.

The decision to switch manufacture of Lancashire hotpot and other dishes from Rose Lane, Lenham, to factories in Flint, North Wales, and Torquay, Devon, has been blamed on the “age and physical limitations” of the site.

In another blow to Kent-based manufacturing, a Brake Bros spokesman said it was “very difficult to develop the operation any further"

He stressed the firm hoped to find jobs for most of the staff affected by the closure but admitted that some could be as far away as Flint.

Employees will be told their fate during a consultation period between now and the planned closure date of May 23.

Brakes employs more than 800 people across Kent, including its head office in Eureka Business Park, Ashford, a distribution centre in Dunton Green, near Sevenoaks, and Lenham. It employs several thousand people nationwide and in France.