Marley Plumbing and Drainage has announced 45 redundancies.

Managing director Chris Nunn said today that because of the “exceptional deterioration” in the construction market the company was shedding jobs at both its Lenham site and at its warehouse in Glasgow. Staff were told at 2pm.

He said: “We will today be starting consultations with our unions to find ways of reducing our payroll costs to match current demand levels.

“It is particularly hard to do this as we come up to Christmas but the market for building products is deteriorating at a rapid rate and we must ensure our cost base is appropriate for the current level of sales.”

Mr Nunn said he did not see any improvement in the market in 2009.

One of MP&D’s biggest customers is Wolseley, which is closing 200 stores across the country, including Bathstore and Plumb Centre.

MP&D is one of the UK’s largest manufacturers of plastic pipe systems and currently employs about 500 people.