BOSSES at a plastics firm hit by the collapse of MG Rover say the number of job losses they are expecting has been reduced by more than half.

Automotive Applied Technologies (AAT), which makes the interior and exterior trims for cars, originally faced losing around 70 of its 180 staff following the collapse of Rover earlier this year.

But the company has now secured contracts from Nissan and the Yorkshire-based Really Useful Products company and bosses say they are now only looking to lose around 20 workers.

Leonard Hodgkinson, commercial manager for AAT, said: "Now that we have got the replacement business in we are thrilled to bits as it means we won't have to lose as many staff.

"It is great news and it has made everyone's lives here a lot easier. The people we will lose will be those who are not directly involved in production. Some people may also take voluntary redundancy.

"The fact we have managed to manage this situation is a credit to everyone in the company. We predicted the situation with Rover last November when the rest of their supply base thought they would be safe."

Mr Hodgkinson added that AAT had kept Rover on tight credit terms which meant it was not hit as hard as it might have been from the company's collapse.

At one time Rover's business accounted for around half of the company's orders but this was later reduced in light of the car maker's problems.

Mr Hodgkinson added: "We have already had to recruit new machine operators and the people we will lose will probably be in areas like technical or quality control.

"The fact that we had predicted the situation with Rover means it didn't owe use any money in the end."