More than 25 employees at one of Sheppey's biggest businesses have been told their jobs are under threat.

Workers at pharmaceutical firm Aesica in Queenborough were called into a meeting today where news about potential job losses was broken to them.

The company has started a consultation process, which may lead to up to 26 people from a number of departments being made redundant from the North Road plant.

Workers, many of whom have been with the business for years, were told they could finish work on Tuesday, May 1 for the last time.

Aesica's Queenborough site currently has 458 employees and a number of temporary workers.

A company spokesman said: "As recently announced, we are streamlining certain activities within Aesica Pharmaceuticals to continue to strengthen the business for the future.

"As a result, we are now undertaking a comprehensive reorganisation of Queenborough’s resource, with a focus on indirect permanent labour.

"Our intention is to create a focused and more efficient operation, enabling Queenborough to become more agile and responsive to customer demand that, in turn, will drive our future success."

He added: "We are starting a comprehensive consultation process as we anticipate making potential redundancies and will attempt to mitigate as many compulsory redundancies as we can through consultation.

"The exact timescales remain to be determined, but our target is to complete this transition by the end of the current financial year, April 30.

"As a result of this reorganisation, we will create a more efficient operation at Queenborough, supporting the growing Aesica Pharmaceuticals business."

The axe comes soon after a restructure at the site at the tail end of last year, where 19 people lost their jobs.