UNION bosses at Darwen-based Crown Paints have welcomed news of investment despite the loss of 10 jobs.

Crown Paints said last year it would shed 70 jobs nationwide as it brought in new technology to fill cans with paint more efficiently.

As a result, it was expected 10 jobs would go in Darwen and 60 at the firm’s plant in Hull, where the new £1million technology would be implemented.

Despite the prospect of Darwen job losses, GMB convenor for the Darwen site Bob Welham said the future was promising.

He said: “We will deal with 10 redundancies here no problem. We will probably have more than that volunteering to go. We need investment in technology to keep up with our competitors and if we didn’t buy this machine our opposition would be able to produce more paint at a cheaper cost than us and Crown Paints would fade.

“I believe the company has ambitions and wants to move forward and wants additional work, which would create employment.”

Mr Welham said he planned to speak with bosses about a proposal to offer jobs to redundant workers in Hull.

He said: “We want to help people at both sites and if more people than needed volunteer for redundancy here then we are proposing we could offer people in Hull the chance to come here.”