Scottish & Newcastle has confirmed plans to close the Berkshire Brewery, near Reading, by early 2010, threatening 362 jobs. In November it said that it would close its bottling plant in Reading and outsource three million hectolitres of Foster’s and Kronenbourg 1664 production to Coors Brewers. Heineken, which would take on S&N’s British unit under its takeover bid with Carlsberg, said that it did not have “sufficient insight into the detail of the business to form a definitive view” on whether it would press ahead with the plan. Unions threatened strike action.