The owners of Boddingtons beer have shelved plans to move part of its operation out of Manchester.

However, the agreements reached will still mean jobs will go in Manchester.

The future of the Strangeways brewery was secured on Monday after five hours of negotiations.

Unions were preparing to appeal to the European courts over the bid to move "the cream of Manchester" out of the city.

We will continue to consult with our members to seek views for the proposed way forward

Tony Woodley T&G union

"[However] our main goal of maintaining the brewing of Boddingtons at Manchester has been achieved", said Tony Woodley, deputy general secretary of the T&G union.

Interbrew, which owns the brand, had intended to move 80% of its production to Lancashire and south Wales.

The move would have cost the company 68 jobs but reportedly save managers �3.5m. But now the plan has been shelved.

The draughtflow version of the beer was due to be moved out of Manchester, while the cask ale version would have continued to be produced in the city.

'Possible review'

Bosses said there will be no compulsory redundancies enforced.

However, Stewart Gilliand, the chief executive of Interbrew warned the situation might have to be "reviewed".

He told BBC GMR: "We've got to make sure we get the cask sales going again and the brand becomes very vibrant."

They expect that early retirement, relocation and retraining will cover the jobs that have to go.

Mr Woodley said: "We will continue to consult with our members to seek views and support for the proposed way forward.

"From a trade union point of view [this] must be to have no enforced redundancies."