Outdoor clothing company Lowe Alpine has warned its Kendal staff up to 50 people could lose their jobs when it moves part of its operation to Italy.

Shocked staff heard half the workforce could be axed by July 1, with research and development, international sales, accounting, and purchasing and supply being hit hardest.

A management team broke the bad news on Wednesday evening to all the staff at the two sites run by Lowe Alpine at Meal Bank and on Ann Street in Kendal.

Managing director David Udberg said: "It's a big blow for people here. We are very much aware of the impact this will have and we will try to handle these issues as sensitively as we can. It's never an easy time."

Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Collins said: "It's extremely grim news. People have a right to feel shock and anger. Yet again it's a workforce doing its level best for employers based outside the town and yet again it's Kendal that gets it in the neck."

He added he feared it might prove difficult for the staff losing their jobs to find new work in this area.

He said he would use this case as further evidence to lobby Government for more funding for businesses in South Lakeland.

Derek Armstrong, of the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce in Kendal, said he recognised firms sometimes needed to cut jobs to stay afloat.

However, he added this case proved the need for a new business park in South Lakeland to attract firms from outside the area and to help those already here.

Lowe Alpine's Mr Udberg said changes had been expected since the firm was taken over by the Italian firm Asolo last year.

He said the reason for the job cuts was that the parent company had similar departments doing the same work at its base in Treviso, near Venice, and cutting those operations in Kendal would save money.

Mr Udberg said a consultation process had now begun with the staff, who were expected to form a team of representatives to negotiate on their behalf.

Until that team came forward with suggestions, he said he could not be sure exactly how many people would lose their jobs.

Mr Udberg only joined the company on February 1 this year. Asked if he was brought in as a hatchet man, he said he had to see the firm through a transitional phase and staff were sympathetic towards him having to deliver the bad news.

He said it was not a case of what was good for the company being bad for its staff: "We have to make sure the company is strong, vibrant, and viable. We owe that to the people who will continue to operate here."