MORE than 100 staff at Royal Worcester Porcelain have been told their jobs are on the line.

The troubled company, which opened in the city since 1751, released a statement yesterday saying it is proposing "a restructuring of its manufacturing facilities" in Worcester and approximately 130 employees "may be affected".

If all the jobs go, it will mean the workforce will have been slashed by half in the last 14 months.

The news is the latest blow for Royal Worcester which first announced a "phased run down" due to "depressed market conditions" in November 2003 when 100 jobs were axed.

And in August 2004, the company revealed it had sold its Portland Walk factory and property on Severn Street to developers to pay off borrowings.

Yesterday's statement announced that the Royal Worcester and Spode Group, as with the rest of the industry, had seen a significant reduction in demand for some of its traditional products.

It will now focus just on the production of ornamental, giftware and prestige ranges such as figurines - and the tableware ranges will cease production.

"Of the total workforce at Worcester approximately 130 employees may be affected, which represents 12 per cent of the group's overall workforce," the statement continued.

"The company will now be entering into consultations with employees' representatives regarding the situation.

"It is hoped to have completed the process by mid-2005."

One worker - who wished to remain anonymous - who has been at Royal Worcester for 38 years, said this morning he feared he was on the "chopping list".

"We were told the news yesterday and everyone was in total shock. We are expecting to know exactly who will go in the two weeks," he said.

"Morale is at rock bottom and people are just going through the motions."

Garry Oates, assistant general secretary of the Ceramic and Allied Trade Union (CATU) which represents 170 workers at Royal Worcester, said he would be trying his very best to whittle down the number of redundancies as much as possible over the next two weeks of consultations.

"But I'm not optimistic," he added. "We knew that there would be some redundancies but when we found out it could be 130 we were very shocked.

"It goes without saying this will have a huge impact on Worcester."

No one from Royal Worcester was available for comment as the Evening News went to press.

n Royal Worcester will continue its activities of independent product development, design, sales and marketing, as well as continuing to invest and supply quality, well designed, branded products to "meet the requirements of the market".

"The development of its retail shops and visitor facilities on site will also continue to be upgraded and invested in to provide a premium attraction for the city of Worcester and continued employment," the statement said.