Bosses from the High Street chain were called to talks with ministers on Friday, following Tuesday's announcement the Lanarkshire cosmetic plant would be run down.

Scottish Secretary Helen Liddell and Holyrood enterprise minister Iain Gray heard company executives say the plant has no future.

It will be wound down over the next two years with the loss of 1,000 jobs as the work is transferred to other centres.

I would like to see the continuation of employment but I have to be realistic - many people will feel it was such a slap in the mouth from Boots in the past week that they want to move on Helen Liddell Scottish Secretary

Mr Gray and Mrs Liddell ended the meeting with promises from the company it would do everything possible to look at options and to mitigate the blow.

The company also denied it had needlessly kept politicians in the dark about its plans.

Both ministers were told by the company only the day before Tuesday's public announcement of the proposal to shut the operation, which Boots has maintained in Airdrie since 1949.

However, Mrs Liddell said she had received an apology from the company for "some of the misleading statements" made earlier this week which had wrongly suggested politicians had been informed at a much earlier stage.

The minister said she was disappointed that Boots is determined the close the factory.

'Victims'

She said: "I have little doubt they have made their mind up.

"The unions have made it clear, and I entirely support their position, that we will fight on to retain employment on the Airdrie site.

"But I got the impression the whole exercise is a consultation exercise on how they carry out the closure, rather than averting closure."

Helen Liddell met Boots bosses in Glasgow

Mrs Liddell said Boots had pledged to work with Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Executive to look at the possibility of a buyer for the site to protect some jobs.

She said: "I would like to see the continuation of employment but I have to be realistic - many people will feel it was such a slap in the mouth from Boots in the past week that they want to move on."

Mrs Liddell said a commitment had been made to the regeneration of the area, but added: "I am left with the impression my constituents are the victims of the corporate upheaval that is current taking place in Boots plc."

Iain Gray said Boots appeared convinced there was little alternative to pulling out of Airdrie, but was willing to work at finding alternative.

He said: "The great shame is that the discussions which took place today could have taken place a lot earlier in this process."

Iain Gray regrets the talks did not happen earlier

Meanwhile, unions emerged from the meeting pledging to fight on.

Frank Whitefield, a full-time official of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers, said: "The talks were very constructive.

"We still want everything possible to maintain production and save jobs at the plant in Airdrie.

"We know it is not going to be easy but we are not going to give up."

Boots bosses defended the closure proposal and denied that politicians had been kept in the dark.

'Constructive meeting'

The company said the proposal to close the plant was decided on at a meeting of the board last Thursday, senior politicians were told on Monday and nobody outside the company knew about the closure decision until that day.

Boots group operations director Paul Bateman said: "We have tried our hardest to avoid any redundancies but unfortunately we have had a surplus capacity situation that ended with the announcement we gave on Tuesday.

"We wanted to get the news out to the people most concerned about this - our employees.

"We pre-informed the ministers, we have now had a very constructive meeting and we have agreed how we go forward with the consultation process."