EMPLOYEES of a local business are rallying around to keep their troubled company afloat, by working for an extra hour each day unpaid.

The skeleton staff of four at Silvabronz and Kingsley Chrome, have donated their time after two full-time staff were made redundant.

The firm, which has been up and running for 14 years, is located in Kingsley Business Park. It deals in gold, silver and chrome plating for things like bathroom fittings and car parts.

The firm has fallen upon hard times as a result of the loss of two large corporate contracts. One contracts was lost to a firm in the Middle East, and the other because the client's business went under.

The first redundancy occurred on Friday last week and the second employee terminates his employment on Friday, July 13.

Jason Barnes (26), an electro-chrome plater at the firm, said: "We used to have a turnover of around £30,000 per month, but now it is more like 10 or 15 thousand.

"We have been told that there will be no more redundancies, which is just as well as we are operating on a skeleton staff as it is. The management has said that if anything else is done, it will have to be full closure.

"Morale is as good as it can be at the minute. We are all pulling together to get the work done, but there is always the fact that we could be out of a job in the next month or two, lurking around the corner".

Andrew Chiverton, one of the partners in the firm, said: "It is obviously very generous of them; they are very loyal employees and they always have been.

"My partner Colin French mentioned the idea to the lads and they jumped at the chance. I would like to thank them for doing this, along with everything else they do around here".