The footwear, clothing and underwear wholesaler posted a loss of $149.9 million for the half year ending December 31, and announced it will cut 1850 jobs in its manufacturing and administration operations across Australia.

Pacific Brands operates the Bonds manufacturing warehouse at Unanderra, where 207 positions will be made redundant, and the King Gee factory at Bellambi, where 74 redundancies will be made.

Textiles, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia NSW secretary Barry Tubner said delegates would meet at Pacific Brands Wentworthville factory at 2pm today to discuss the situation.

"This has been on sprung on us this morning,'' Mr Tubner said.

"The company decided it owed more allegiance to the stock exchange than it did to the union and union members.''

Mr Tubner described the decision as a "knee-jerk reaction'' to the sharemarket.

"This is the wrong time for 250 people to lose their jobs in Wollongong.''

Pacific Brands Chief Executive Sue Morphet said the company's first half results were "solid" and in line with its financial guidance.

She said the uncertain economic climate remained challenging, with consumer confidence at low levels.

"We will discontinue some of our smaller labels and brands to reduce complexity and cost and divest some non-core businesses and facilities, some as going concerns,'' Ms Morphet said.

"Unfortunately these changes will necessitate 1850 job losses in Australia over an 18-month period including 1200 in clothing manufacturing.''

For more coverage see Thursday's Mercury.

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