MORE than 60 supermarket jobs are under threat after it was announced that a long- established store would close.

Staff at the Somerfield store in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, were told at a meeting on Friday morning that the branch would close as it was not making big enough profits.

The store will close on Saturday, April 29, with 63 redundancies. Staff will hold individual meetings this week to negotiate redundancy payments.

Somerfield has been in the town for almost 30 years, but rumours had started to spread about its future after a Tesco store was built nearby in 2004.

That speculation has now been confirmed, but what will become of the site in Beveridge Way is unclear, although there have been rumours of another high street supermarket taking over.

A worker at the store said: "We were called into a meeting at 8am on Friday morning. About two months ago we had a meeting with the area manager, who told us to ignore the rumours that the store was closing.

"But on Thursday night, a few people were rung up at home. The rest, by rumour or word of mouth, were told there was a meeting.

"About 30 people were in the meeting and the new area manager, who has only been there three weeks, read out a letter. It said that our Somerfield was not contributing enough profits and the store would close."

Although there had been talk of the branch shutting, the announcement came as a shock for many in the town. Elderly shoppers are likely to be worst affected, as the store offered a home-delivery service.

A Somerfield spokesman said: "We can confirm that the Somerfield store in Newton Aycliffe will close on April 29, 2006.

"All 63 employees are currently in one-to-one consultations. We are also working to establish potential opportunities at other Somerfield stores and with other retailers in the area. Redundancy packages are available to those we cannot place.

"We would like to thank staff and customers for their support at this store over the years."