MORE than 30 staff are to lose their jobs when a Bordon-based plastics moulding firm closes its doors.

Rubycliff Toolmaker Ltd, situated on the Woolmer Trading Estate, is to cease manufacturing at the end of July with the loss of 34 jobs.

In a statement to the Herald, the director and general manager of Rubycliff, Derek Mangnall, said: "The company has experienced a considerable sales volume reduction in the last year and in the current maunufacturing economic climate, it is very unlikely that significant improvements will happen.

"The company has been in consultation with the employees about the future of the business.

"The result of that consultation is that there is little option for the continuation for the business at its present location.

"Unfortunately that is resulting in the closure of this site."

The first indication of redundancies was back in April when a consulation period started with parent company Blugilt Holdings Ltd, which is based in Nottingham.

At the time of going to press, managing director of Blugilt Holdings, Eddie Holt, was unavailable for comment.

Rubycliff has been in Bordon since the 1970s and once employed three times as many people to make plastic moldings.

Mr Mangnall said: "At our maximum we employed 90 people. We have not been replacing them, but there comes a point when all we see is the end."

Some of those that were facing redundancy have already left the firm for new jobs.

Mr Mangnall said he was "very sorry about the situation".

He said: "We are doing our best to make sure that everybody finds employment. We are doing all that we can including using the local job centre."

Mr Mangnall is also due to lose his job after an internal transition period, which is scheduled to take place between August and December this year.

He said the mood of the workers was "as good as can be expected. None of them is happy".

One worker who did not wish to be named described the redundancies as "a total kick in the teeth".

He said that many of the workers had been there at least eight years - and some had worked for the firm for as long as 20.

"They're a bit worried because they're looking for work in the same line of business, or around this area, and they don't know what they're going to do."

He also said that workers had no indication that redundancies were looming.

"Until three months ago, we never had a clue, and then people's attitudes started to change and the work was a bit sparse. It was like a bombshell."

The source said that the redundancies were only confirmed three weeks ago.

Workers at Rubycliff have been instructed not to talk to the press - but the worker said: "as I'm being made redundant, what harm can it do?"

He did not blame Derek Mangnall for the redundancies and said: "At the end of the day, he's been dropped in it as much as everybody else. I think it's a big blow for him, personally.

"He's a decent guy; he's a very nice guy. He always comes down the shop floor and speaks to us."

The Woolmer Trading Estate is owned by East Hampshire District Council, and 'to let' signs are already on the front of the building. Rubycliff is vacating the premises on August 24.

Tory MP for Hampshire North East, James Arbuthnot, said: "This is clearly a worrying time for those people who have lost their jobs.

"The manufacturing industry is going through a difficult time at the moment, partly because of the weakness of the euro and the strength of the pound, and partly because industrial regulations that have been imposed on them.

"It's great sadness when it means that people are turned out of jobs and I hope that they all have good fortune in finding a job as quickly as possible."