A PLASTICS firm is to close throwing 40 employees on the dole queue just four days before Christmas.

Dutch-owned HK Plastics is to shut its operation on Runcorn's Astmoor Industrial Estate on December 21.

This week management at the firm's Hardwick Road HQ refused to talk about the closure.

However, Halton Borough Council's Halton People Into Jobs initiative are to speak to the staff including the senior management team. All the staff are believed to live in the borough.

Halton council leader Tony McDermott said: 'What a Christmas present for the 40 employees.'

The firm manufactures plastic goods such as buckets at its Runcorn site.

Meanwhile, 40 staff are to leave Runcorn's Guinness plant before the new year.

And employees have said the remaining process technicians at the plant will have their pay slashed by £5,000.

Last month the Weekly News revealed that more than one million pints could pass through Runcorn's Guinness plant every day under plans for a massive expansion.

Under the proposals, the facility on the Whitehouse Industrial Estate would be the site for the kegging of all the UK's Guinness by the summer.

Diageo, Britain's largest drink company, owns the site and believes the expansion could create scores of jobs.

The announcement came after rumours that the firm was to wield the axe over the Runcorn site.

However, workers at the plant have revealed that 40 people have taken voluntary redundancy and more jobs losses could be on the way.

One man who leaves at the end of the year said: 'At first there were going to be at least 52 redundancies but we managed to negotiate it down to 40 which, fortunately, are all voluntary.

'However, a lot of the people left will have their pay cut because the new system will mean they are no longer required to be on 24-hour call.'

A spokesman for the firm said: 'We undertake regular reviews of efficiency, as all companies do, but at the moment we are working to a plan for the next three years. We have no plans to close the site.

'Subject to planning approval, we hope to take over the kegging of all Guinness in the UK from Runcorn in summer 2005. We are talking about a plan that is going to have a very positive effect on the future.'

The manufacturer's portfolio also includes Smirnoff vodka, Baileys and J&B whisky.