Household products giant Kimberly-Clark has named Brighton's Mocatta House as its European headquarters.

The multi-national, which is behind household names such as Andrex, Kleenex and Huggie nappies, will base its European operation in the building from August.

The company is already recruiting and expects to employ 250 people at its shared service centre.

Local business leaders have hailed the company's decision to move to Brighton and Hove as a major boost for the city's economy.

A company spokeswoman said: "We have been looking at this property for quite some time but until we signed the lease we did not want to make public where it was."

Kimberly-Clark has signed a 14-year lease for four floors of Mocatta House in the Trafalgar Place development, off Trafalgar Street and beside Brighton station.

All four floors, which had been occupied by the Post Office, are to be refitted before staff move in during late May or early June.

The new European shared service centre is scheduled to open on August 1, although it is expected to be three years before the entire operation is working from Brighton.

The centre will become the company's European headquarters for a string of administration departments, operating in 14 countries.

Speculation had linked Kimberly-Clark to the old Alliance and Leicester offices in Hove, the derelict Sunblest factory in Woodingdean and Prince's House in Queen's Road.

The company employs about 55,000 people, including more than 10,000 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In 1999 it recorded sales of about £9 billion.