DOZENS of workers are to lose their jobs because production of Rawlplug DIY fittings is being switched from near Glasgow to Poland.

The cost cutting move by the firm will bring to an end 40 years of manufacturing at a plant which used to produce up to 31 million fixtures a year.

State-of-the-art manufacturing equipment is being shipped from the East Renfrewshire site to the Polish city of Wroclaw where the owners of Rawlplug Ltd are based.

The decision will lead to the loss of around 40 jobs although the plant at Thornliebank Industrial Estate will stay open.

The production hub currently employs 130 workers and 90 staff continue to deal with assembly work, finance, sales and distribution.

However, manufacturing which began in 1969 is being stopped.

The move comes three years after Rawlplug was bought by the Koelner Group and as Poland's low wage economy attracts major manufacturers.

Plants producing a range of goods from mobile phones to televisions have opened in recent years.

Rawlplug boss Pawel Doszynski said: "We are looking at making savings right across the group and as such all Rawlplug manufacturing will now take place in Poland.

"We have just started production in Poland this week and the process of moving the machines from Glasgow will continue and will be completed by May 31.

"We are still in consultation with staff about redundancies but once the restructuring process is completed we expect to lose around one quarter of our staff in Glasgow. But we are still fully committed to the site which will remain our UK base for assembly, finance, sales and distribution."

The Rawlplug quickly became a British institution after it was invented by Yorkshire engineer John Rawlings in 1907.

He developed the fixing after winning a contract to install electrical wiring at the British Museum in London and was warned that only minimal damage to the walls would be permitted.

Rawlings developed his revolutionary fixing but it was only after the First World War that he went into production by opening a factory in London in 1919.

Other sites were opened across Britain.

The business was sold in 1985 and has had a string of owners since then.

Thornliebank eventually became the only Rawlplug manufacturing site in the UK.

Koelner produces hundreds of millions of specialist fixings every year for more than 70 countries. Rawlplug has subsidiaries in Scandinavia, Ireland, France and the United Arab Emirates.