Staff at Andrex maker Kimberly Clark face uncertainty about their future after the company announced it would close 10 factories.

The tissue producer, which has a manufacturing site in Northfleet and offices in West Malling, aims to cut about 5,500 jobs worldwide.

It aims to make annual savings of up to $550 million (£386m) from the changes.

However, it refused to announce whether any jobs will be axed at its Kent sites.

It employs about 280 people at its production depot at Northfleet Mill on Crete Hall Road.

A Kimberly Clark spokesman said: “The company is not providing specifics on the status of any of our production facilities or the proposed job reductions, until final decisions are made and announced.

“The timing of those announcements will be determined by the needs of the business and appropriate consultation and negotiations with unions, works councils and other labour stakeholders.”

The statement comes after it announced they will be restructuring their business in order to return to delivering their long term growth objectives.

It suffered a 1% decline in operating profits to $3.3 billion (£2.3bn) last year, with sales roughly unchanged at $18.3 billion (£12.9bn).

Kimberly Clark, which also makes Huggies nappies, has its headquarters in Texas and employs about 1,600 people in the UK.