A Japanese company's North East flagship factory is shedding 95 jobs in a bid to secure the plant's long term future in the region.

The bleak news was delivered yesterday from NSK Bearings' Peterlee base where employees were being briefed over the cuts.

Staff were told that the transfer of uncompetitive production lines to a sister plant in Poland coupled with a new swathe of necessary cost cuttings meant further "regrettable" reductions were necessary."

In January the company called for voluntary redundancies but yesterday it was revealed that to achieve the needed reductions over the next nine months compulsory redundancies will have to take place eventually leaving a remaining workforce of 575.

Finance manager, Philip Laughton said: "The headcount reductions are one part of the company's overall strategy on cost reduction to ensure that the Peterlee operation has a sustainable future.

"It is a matter of regret to us all that, for the first time in the Peterlee plant's 28 years in existence job cuts of this nature have become necessary."

He added: "The company and the management team are determined that we take positive action to safeguard the overall future of the plant.

"We are confident that the operation at Peterlee will emerge from these painful changes as a sustainable cost competitive manufacturing plant in a global market and remain a key advanced manufacturing employer within the Peterlee area." The company will be entering into a formal consultation exercise with staff employees and its Trade Union before any agreed plans are implemented. Steve Metcalfe, human resources manager at the plant said: "We will do whatever we can to minimise the effects of any necessary redundancy."

Easington's MP John Cummings will be meeting with the NSK management to-day (Thursday) to discuss the implications of the job losses and the resulting consequences for the area.

The Peterlee plant opened in 1976 when NSK was the first major Far East investor in the North East.