A MALVERN packaging company is to shed a quarter of its workforce, as it prepares to capitalise on a growing market in the Far East.

The cuts are being made as Pendragon Presentation Packaging, at Enigma Business Park, gets ready to move to new premises next year.

The company currently employs 40 and intends to move away from the manufacturing side of its operation, necessitating around ten redundancies.

Pendragon manufactures custom presentation packaging for larger companies, as well as chocolate boxes for smaller, independent firms. It will now focus on design and the market in the Far East.

A planning application was submitted to Malvern Hills District Council this week for a new building at Hayfield Industrial Park, off spring Lane North. If granted, construction would begin in early December and be completed by May 2003.

Sales director Phil Humphreys said the job losses were unfortunate, but were part of a move that signified success for the company, whose clients include Harrods and Harvey Nicholls.

"Our manufacturing side is being shrunk somewhat," said Mr Humphreys.

"We're going to continue manufacturing in all the ways that we presently do but in certain areas on a different scale."

He said a sister company, not Pendragon, would now distribute the chocolate boxes.

"We're also finding that we're dealing quite a lot with the Far East now. To be doing that we need the design side and the office but we don't need the square footage.

"We're still going to manufacture those boxes but supply them to a sister company who are going to distribute them for us."

District council planning officers will examine the application before a decision is reached sometime in the weeks ahead.