LIGHTING company Thorn said yesterday it remains committed to the region despite shedding 19 jobs at its County Durham plant.

Competition from other European brand leaders is blamed for the cutback which was announced to 1,000 workers at Thorn's Spennymoor factory on Friday.

The company is looking for ten volunteers from people involved directly in manufacturing and another nine from its support team. The deadline for applications is the end of this week.

At the same time, Thorn is pressing ahead with investment plans at Spennymoor which is its last UK production site.

The town was hit by a massive blow last October when 950 redundancies were announced at power tool company Black-and-Decker.

And 45 jobs are threatened at nearby Newton Aycliffe where motor lamp company Oshino may close at the end of this month.

Thorn Lighting, which was bought by German company Zuntmobel AB early last year, supplies 40 per cent of its European capacity from Spenny-moor, despite having operations in France and Scandinavia.

Although the plant dates back to 1952, it has been transformed in recent years into one of the most modern lighting factories in Europe, with the latest flexible manufacturing systems and cellular production.

Thorn's publicity manager Hugh King said further investment was planned. He said: "It is regrettable that these jobs have to go but it is a difficult time in the market place.

"It seems to be becoming increasingly competitive. There has been a fall in demand and we are competing against other major brands for a shrinking market. At the same time, we are committed to Spennymoor. It is a flagship factory and we are maintaining out investment programme for the future there.

"We are commissioning some new machinery to come on stream early this year."