An international manufacturing company is to quit Brighton and Hove because it has no space to expand.

Global optical firm Rayner has been producing optical lenses for companies around the world from its base in Hove for more than 30 years.

But the firm, which employs 130 people in the city, has announced it is relocating its UK manufacturing base to Worthing blaming the lack of suitable space nearby as the main reason for the move.

The relocation removes a major obstacle to the start of the £100 million redevelopment of its current site on Sackville Trading Estate, off Sackville Road, Hove.

The international firm, which produced the first ever intraocular contact lenses, initially moved to Hove in 1978.

But in a letter to staff the firm confirmed it will move to the former Europharm factory in Dominion Way, Worthing, within the next three years.