The famous clothing company is to close its Borders site

It was announced on Friday that the plant was to shut at the end of the month with the loss of 46 jobs.

Unite union regional industrial organiser Tony Trench said it was a "sad day" for manufacturing.

A company statement said it had been the union which had pushed for closure of the plant by 31 January.

In the end there was no love lost with Barbour and the workforce wanted to draw a line under the way they felt they had been treated Tony Trench Unite regional organiser

The deal will mean each of the workers will get statutory redundancy pay but the union has also negotiated extra payments.

Meetings are now being sought with local MPs and MSPs to discuss the impact of the closure.

"This is a sad day as another manufacturing operation shuts its doors," said Mr Trench.

"In the end there was no love lost with Barbour and the workforce wanted to draw a line under the way they felt they had been treated."

A statement from the company said it had become evident "at an early stage" that the union did not want to consider anything other than immediate closure.

It said it had been prepared to continue a feasibility study of other options for the plant until the end of February.

'No pressure'

Brenda Readman-Bell, group finance director of Barbour, said the decision to cut short that process had come from the union.

"I can confidently say that no pressure whatsoever was placed on the trade union and I must emphasise that the premature closure was agreed by Barbour at the union request," she said.

"It was a very difficult decision for us to take to conduct the feasibility study."

However, she said changes in knitwear trends meant the firm had no option but to "consider its options to endeavour to remedy the situation".