A MEETING on Friday could help save one of Ross-on-Wye's leading employers from shutdown - or seal the site's fate.

Hereford MP Paul Keetch is to talk with senior managers of the town's Trelleborg factory over what it takes to keep the plant open.

The employees have already made a 'very powerful case' with the plant in profit and boosted by a full order book, said Mr Keetch.

But he warned that the decision lay solely with Trelleborg.

Trelleborg says the shutdown is nothing to do with the capabilities and commitment of the workforce.

Instead, tough trading conditions and the loss of a major customer meant moving much of the gasket manufacturing done at Ross to Mexico and the rest to another plant near Tewkesbury.

As proposed, the shutdown would reduce the site over the next 12 to 18 months.

The staff association and on-site unions hope to persuade the company otherwise.

"I, too, will try to convince (Trelleborg) that it is making the wrong decision," said Mr Keetch.

"All that I have been told makes me think that this is a successful factory, and that there is a strong case for keeping it open. I hope that management will listen to the arguments that the workers are putting, but if not then they have a duty of care to all those that have served their company so well for so many years," he said.

A majority of the employees have been with the factory - under various parent company names - for 25 years or more.