A NORTH-East cable company, that laid off more than 120 workers in May, expects to save the jobs of its remaining employees after its creditors agreed to a plan to save the business.

A meeting of creditors for AEI Cables, based at Birtley, County Durham, gave the go-ahead to a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) to save the remaining 189 jobs.

Another 126 employees made redundant last month will receive redundancy pay as part of the CVA arrangement.

The firms chief executive Clive Sharp said: "We cannot express enough how sorry we are to have to lose 126 of our colleagues but we were advised that this was the only option to save the company and the jobs of the other employees."

He said that the creditors decision was a clear message of support for the company and its business plan going forward.

"This enables us to get on with the business of making the company profitable again, and focus on the industrial and specialised cables market," Mr Sharp said.

"It also means that those who have been made redundant can see a date for the start of redundancy pay."

The business had been hit by volatile raw material prices, particularly copper, cheap imports and tough trading conditions.

It will stop manufacturing house wiring cables and concentrate on its core markets in industrial and specialised products.