MORRELLS Brewery will close next month with some immediate redundancies.

New owners of the Oxford brewery said talks were at an advanced stage with a medium-sized brewery to produce Morrells brands under contract. An announcement is expected within ten days.

Paul Beadle, chief Executive of the new company Morrells of Oxford Ltd, said today: "Unfortunately, there will be some redundancies but in the long term I hope there will be a net employment gain." He said all members of staff had been interviewed with some indicating that they wished to leave voluntarily. It was hoped other workers could transfer to delivery services or even the pubs.

Mr Beadle moved to scotch fears that he was looking to sell on the 132 pub estate for a vast profit. He said: "We are not looking to make a fast buck. Far from selling the pubs, we see the Morrells estate as an excellent foundation on which to build our business and are looking to acquire other pubs as the opportunities present themselves."

He said the first pub to benefit from new investment will be The Berinsfield Arms which closed in September.

He said the brewery wanted to work closely with Oxford City Council and had promised not to make any major changes without agreement. He confirmed that a number of Oxford colleges were interested in the St Thomas Street site.

The Morrells family sold the business to an investment company headed by beer and burger tycoon Michael Cannon for £48m, last month.

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