Up to 240 manufacturing staff at a cosmetics factory have lost their jobs.

Creative Outsourcing Solutions International (COSi), based at The Body Shop plant in Littlehampton, is moving the bulk of its manufacturing jobs to Wales in an attempt to cut costs.

The posts will be transferred over the next 12 months.

One hundred staff will remain at the Littlehampton site which will continue to produce a limited range of luxury or "premium" products.

Bosses said the factory was no longer suitable for high-volume production.

COSi was originally based in South Africa but moved to the Watersmead Business Park in Littlehampton in 2000 when it bought The Body Shop's manufacturing plant for £47 million.

Besides The Body Shop, COSi makes cosmetics for some of the biggest household product companies in the world such as Unilever and Proctor & Gamble.

Turnover this year is expected to exceed £100 million.

COSi cited the fact that the Littlehampton site was split over two factories as one of the reasons it was relocating the main manufacturing part of the business to Maesteg in Wales.

Chief executive Stuart Meldrum said: "With increasing pressure from competitors in low-cost countries, we are constantly being challenged to remain competitive.

"One of the changes we need to make is to consolidate our cost base and there are a number of physical limitations for high-volume manufacturing at Littlehampton."

He said the Littlehampton site was unable to accommodate highly flammable products like aftershave and perfume which accounted for ten per cent of sale.

COSi said workers were being offered one-to-one counselling, help in finding alternative employment and, in some cases, the chance to relocate to Wales.

Workers, who were told the news on Monday, were coming to terms with the news yesterday.

Rhys Hayes, 34, of Wick, Littlehampton, who has worked on the site for 11 years, said: "Both my wife and I work for COSi so this has not been welcome news.

"We have all had to work so hard over the past few years to fight off competition, with lean manufacturing and continuous improvement programmes."

The factory in Littlehampton will become COSi's "global centre of development", housing the company's research and development and innovation teams.

Alistair Smith, chief executive of the West Sussex Economic Partnership, which devises the economic strategy for the region, described the job losses as sad.

He told The Argus: "The coast of West Sussex is the one area that really can't afford to lose good employers such as COSi.

"The one upshot is that the jobs that remain sound will be higher-value, which is the kind of economy we are trying to create here, but the loss of any jobs is regrettable."

COSi employs approximately 1,000 people worldwide, with offices in the United States, Italy, France, China and Britain.