FINNISH plastics components company Perlos is planning to make 97 workers redundant.

The Rainton Bridge plant, at Sunderland, plans to lay off the staff as it battles a combination of external market factors.

These are believed to include the loss of a major telecommunications customer to a competitor overseas, the slowing of the market in general and the continued strength of the pound, which is affecting its competitiveness in export markets.

The firm, part of the worldwide Perlos Group, is now in the process of creating an employee consultation body which will discuss ways of avoiding the redundancies and ways of reducing the number of employees who may be made redundant.

Perlos managing director Teemu Saloranta said: "The Perlos management regrets the need to consider these cuts, but we are faced with no alternative under the current trading conditions in order to safeguard the longer term future of the company and our people.

"We believe in our future remaining a successful company as part of a successful group, which is continuing to invest in the Sunderland manufacturing facility.

"Perlos is now looking to diversify into other markets to compensate for the world trade conditions which have affected the telecommunications sector. And we remain committed to protecting as many jobs as possible now and in the future."

Perlos moved into the 70,000sq ft Rainton Bridge plant from its smaller base in Washington, Tyne and Wear, in May this year. The move created about 50 jobs at the time of the relocation which started a year ago.

Earlier this year, Perlos won a contract to manufacture a drug dispensing system, which was used on the Russian space station Mir, from Swedish pharmaceutical firm Item Development.