FIRMS will fold and jobs will go throughout East Lancashire if the pound stays strong, a company boss said today after announcing 19 redundancies.

The Cherry Tree Machine Company, Blackburn, has been forced to sack the 19 workers in the latest of a series of cuts that has reduced the workforce from more than 100 to less than 30 in the past year.

It is the latest job loss announcement by a manufacturing firm battered by the double effect of the strong pound, which makes their exports too dear to sell abroad, and makes rival imported products too cheap to compete with in the UK.

Cherry Tree, which manufactures and supplies laundry equipment, is one of East Lancashire's oldest firms and moved its 100-strong workforce to a new site at Walker Industrial Park just over a year ago.

Managing director Kirk Forrest described the latest redundancies as a "sad decision".

He also revealed that it was now cheaper for the firm to import laundry machines from a company in New York to sell here than it was to make them in Blackburn.

He said the company had seen its export market all but disappear during the past year because of the strength of sterling. "The other side of the coin is that the strong pound also makes imported machinery cheaper which has hit our domestic market," said Mr Forrest.

Most of the jobs that have been lost at the firm have gone on the manufacturing side and the firm is only retaining a small capacity for making machinery in the future.

And Mr Forrest predicted a bleak future for the job market in East Lancashire, where thousands are employed in manufacturing, if the effects on manufacturing continue.

"There will be a lot of manufacturing and engineering firms that won't be in existence in six months time if this continues," he said.

A string of East Lancashire firms, including Scapa-Scandia and Newmans, have announced job losses recently, blaming the strength of the pound.

Business leaders representing firms in the North West have urged the Government to take action to protect manufacturers.

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