Workers were called into a meeting on Monday afternoon at Bunzl distribution depot on Caton Road, to be told the centre would shut down on August 22.

Bosses told staff the decision – said to have come "completely out of the blue" – was because of recent petrol price increases.

The workers, who include 13 delivery drivers, and warehouse and sales staff, were given the choice of moving to another Bunzl centre in Manchester or redundancy, subject to a 30-day consultation period.

Bunzl describes itself as "one of the world's fastest growing specialist distribution groups, with operations across the Americas, Europe and Austra-lasia".

Drivers at the Lancaster depot, on the former Lansil Industrial Estate, deliver household and industrial goods all over the North West, Cumbria and parts of Scotland.

"We are proposing to move to a new, larger operation in Manchester to cater for expansion in the business," said a spokesperson for Bunzl.

"We will be working closely with employees during the consultation process and all will be offered employment at the new location if the proposed move goes ahead."

The spokesperson did not confirm or deny if rising petrol costs was a contributing factor.

News of the closure came on the same day as Bunzl released a business progress statement on their website.

It said: "Revenue growth in the UK and Ireland has been strong due to good underlying growth and the impact of recent cquisitions...continues to improve its profitability and has already exceeded initial projections."

Reports in the national press yesterday claimed UK employers were preparing to cut 440,000 jobs nationwide due to the current problems with the British economy, which could cause the highest unemployment rates for over 12 years.