TESCO has scotched rumours that it has earmarked the Kays site for a possible third Worcester store.

The supermarket giant was rumoured to be eyeing the Kays site in Bransford Road after the Worcester News reported that the 120-year-old catalogue firm was pulling out of Worcester.

If the proposal by Kays parent company Shop Direct goes ahead, 700 jobs could be lost.

Employees at the site told the Worcester News on Tuesday there had been whispers about the closure for months and

no one was really surprised.

"The word is that Tesco might want the site," one worker added. However, Tesco press officer Julie Chadwick refuted the claim.

"Obviously, we look at lots of different sites, but I can safely say there are no plans for Bransford Road," she said.

The firm was left without its preferred site for a third city store when the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister ruled against plans to take over Christopher Whitehead High School, in St John's.

The firm had offered to pay £15m to put up a new school on land in Rushwick, near Worcester, in exchange for building a supermarket on the site.

As catalogue firm prepares to pull out, a look at where it all started

Former Worcester Mayor and current county council chairman Derek Prodger (right) with Andy Hayball, who works at flower shop Bloom, the original site of Kays in St Swithin's Street.

Councillor Prodger, who is pictured holding a montage of the history of Kays, has spoken of

his sadness that the catalogue firm is pulling out of Worcester.

Kays has moral obligation to help its workers

DEREK Prodger, MBE, Worcestershire County Council chairman, said he was deeply shocked and saddened by the news of the closure of Kays.

"It must be devastating news to so many employees," he said.

"I hope that the company, which was founded and formed so many years ago in Worcester and has been such a major employer in the city, will make every effort to re-employ staff elsewhere within the group if it moves.

"When you get hundreds of people looking for work after so many years working for the company then that company has a moral obligation to those employees to help them find new work.

"I feel sad that the company has decided to remove itself from what was the city of its birth and I also feel very sad for the people who will lose their jobs.

"There's nothing nicer than going to work, bringing home some money and being able to enjoy it with your loved ones.

"There's nothing worse than having nowhere to go, no resources and no quality of life. I think, luckily, at the moment, the unemployment rates in the city and the county are not very high and I'm sure there are many jobs available.

"But whether they are the jobs required by the individuals who have been doing the same sort of thing for many years, I'm not sure.

"The people who lose their jobs may have to have training, and again I think Kays should assist with that.

"We know things have to change in the world but we should not leave employees who have dedicated their lives to a company to be left on their own and jobless."

Memorabilia may end up in garage