THE entire staff of Bomen-based Tankmasta were sacked yesterday after the company decided to move its operations to its Melbourne plant.Tankmasta's 20 administration, production and transport employees were emotional when they were told yesterday they had about six to eight weeks of work left.The site will remain open to fill existing orders but is expected to be vacated by August.Management of the rainwater tank manufacturer's parent company, Viscount Plastics, said it had become increasingly unviable for the company to compete in the rural and domestic tanks market over the last 18 months.Viscount Plastics managing director Shane Moloughney said employees were given yesterday off to come to terms with the news they would soon be looking for new jobs."There's been a gradual decline in the rural and domestic tank market," Mr Moloughney said."The industry went through a boom period with lots of government subsidies and had a big focus on water sustainability. We've noticed over the last 18 months there's been a decline in the market and over the last three months it's been much more severe."The Tankmasta brand will still exist but will focus on industrial-size tanks, rather than the 30,000-litre to 45,000-litre rural and domestic rainwater tanks.Mr Moloughney said staff would receive their full entitlements and the company, with the assistance of Wagga employment agencies, was helping them find new employment."It was a bit emotional, as you'd expect, but there had been rumours (about the Wagga closure) with such a slow order book," he said."We had Skilled Employment out there (yesterday) and the Wagga job market is not as dire as people make out."With a shift in its business model, the managing director said Viscount Plastics was also forced to lay off a small number of staff at its Carrum Downs facility."It's very, very disappointing. We've been through a boom industry but, unfortunately, we've lost the government and community support in a very competitive market," he said.