The managing director of timber frame manufacture Prestoplan has told the Lancashire Evening Post (LEP) that around a quarter of the company’s workforce face redundancy.

John Bedford said that, like the rest of the building sector, the company had been hit by the economic downturn and was having to cut costs.

“We have just entered a consultation period and approximately 25% of the factory workforce are facing redundancy and all those people who are at risk have been given an at-risk letter,” he said.

He added that the company was trying to ‘hang on to as many people” as it could, but “couldn’t wait too long`’.

According to the LEP, Prestoplan will lose 20 staff at its Preston plant and the same number at its site in Hardwicke, Gloucestershire.

The company was launched over 40 years ago.