Anger over the 76 redundancies at K Shoes in Kendal grew this week as parent company Clarks reported pre-tax profits of £55.7 million.

The figure represents a 17.5 per cent increase on last year and means the firm has posted record profits for the fourth year running.

In each of those years jobs have been shed at K Shoes factories in and around South Lakeland.

Tony Rothwell, Kendal branch chairman of the MSF union at K Shoes, said: "With Clarks making such large profits, the redundancies at Kendal are unjustified." He explained: "They have taken work from Kendal and sent it to China where workers have fewer rights than we have in this country."

Mr Rothwell, who is also a town and district councillor, was one of around 20 'overhead' or non-manufacturing employees made compulsorily redundant in the latest wave of job losses.

Workers met management this week to thrash out details of the latest redundancies.

Of the 76 jobs to go, 30 will be voluntary redundancies - the remaining 46 will be compulsory.

The cuts, which take effect on May 24, will mean there are only around 190 K Shoes workers left in Kendal.

Asked what the future held for those remaining workers, Mr Rothwell said: "I think manufacturing in Kendal is unlikely to last more than another two years."

In a statement issued by Clarks, chief executive Tim Parker said it had been an excellent year for the shoe brand that extended the record of strong profit results in a challenging economic environment.

"Both the UK and American operations achieved record profit, and the brand continues to make progress elsewhere in the world," he added.

In his six-year reign as chairman Mr Parker - who, according to a shareholders report obtained by the Gazette, was paid £1,288,000 last year - has presided over a period of "restructuring" at Clarks.

Spokesman John Keery defended the company's record on redundancies, saying: "There have been redundancies elsewhere.

The business has restructured over the last four years and more, not just at K Shoes but through many areas of the business."

He said restructuring was necessary to make the business more profitable and added similar restructuring had taken place throughout the footwear industry.

"We have been closing factories and, regrettably, making people redundant for the past 20 years," he said.