aNESTL Rowntree has confirmed it is comparing competitiveness in areas of its York factory with sister factories in Europe.

But it says the "benchmarking" studies are normal practice, irrespective of the state of the pound, and no conclusions have yet been reached.

The company issued a brief statement today after the Evening Press received an e-mail claiming that the York factory's cocoa processing plant was under review and could shut with the loss of more than 50 jobs. The anonymous e-mail, purporting to come from a Nestl employee, came in the wake of revelations that some KitKat production has been switched from York to Hamburg in recent months because of the strong pound.

Nestl said on Monday that the factory was not under threat of closure, but warned that some jobs could be lost if sterling keeps its strength and exports continue to be suffer as a result.

The e-mail to the Press claimed that the company was also considering switching Smartie production abroad to cut costs.

"Bit by bit, product is being moved away from the York site to factories in Europe, then one day they'll say it's not economically sensible to run the York site and in will move Barretts and we'll be just another housing site," claimed the sender, who thanked the Evening Press for showing support to him and other worried factory employees.

Asked to comment on the claims, Nestl said in its statement: "We are currently involved in benchmarking studies in some areas of the factory to establish our competitiveness compared to sister factories in Europe. This is normal practice, irrespective of the state of the pound. We cannot speculate on the outcome and have reached no conclusions as yet.

"If there are to be any changes as a result of the benchmarking, our employees will, of course, be the first to be informed."

John Kirk, regional officer with the GMB union, said the review on fixed costs was routine, involved the union and would not be completed until early next year.