A LEADING Hereford business is soon to cease more than 30 years of manufacturing in the city just months after being taken over by a new owner.

Ten skilled workers will lose their jobs when Franklin Hodge Industries Limited - which specialises in the building and supply of water tanks - has its site assembly arm transferred to Birmingham early next month.

The Birmingham-based Carter Engineering Group, which bought Franklin Hodge in October last year, said the move recognises "the need to support growth in a competitive market".

Support services such as management, sales/contracting, design, purchasing, installation control and administration are to stay in Hereford at a new base on the Westfields trading estate.

Franklin Hodge operated out of Rotherwas for many of its 30 years in the city. Most recently, the firm has been part of the Denco plant off Holmer Road. Denco itself is moving out to Moreton-on-Lugg by the end of the year.

Specialising in the supply of site-assembled cylindrical and rectangular tanks for the drinking water, industrial process and fire sprinkler markets, Franklin Hodge has two Queen's Awards for export achievement.

The firm and its shop floor specialists earned a worldwide reputation for designing and building tanks to specific local requirements.

For Eastern Europe, for example, they developed a unique internal insulation system so tanks could cope with extreme temperatures.

In 1992, the company completed its most unusual contract, building a water tank in the bowels of Britain's deepest mine for scientists to detect "galactic dark matter" - particles which astronomers believe travel from the solar system. When the purchase of Franklin Hodge went through last year, Carter Group chief executive Chris Edwards spoke of an "important step" in the firm's future.

This week, Carter Group confirmed that after "careful consideration" it was to form a new division dedicated to manufacturing, based at its existing manufacturing unit in Birmingham.

Mr Edwards said the move allowed both Franklin Hodge and Carter Environmental Engineers Ltd to "concentrate on product and market development" throughout the UK and overseas backed by a "modern and well equipped" centralised manufacturing facility.

The Franklin Hodge workers have been told of the transfer. David Day, of the GMB union, said negotiations over redundancies were under way.