TS TECH’S profits plunged last year as the car seat company battled news of Honda’s closure and the final CR-V SUV rolling off the production line.

The Highworth company, which supplies the Honda plant in South Marston, said in its end-of-year report that a final decision on the firm’s future would be made in 2020. The plant is expected to shut.

Its accounts for the year ending March 2019, published last week, paint a worrying picture. Turnover fell from £137m in 2018 to almost £105.5m last year.

The firm recorded a deficit of £2.6m compared to a £9m profit the year before.

In a directors’ report, managing director Ryuichi Kanamori warned that TS Tech UK may not be able to continue trading.

Last month, the firm announced proposals to close its Blackworth Industrial Estate facility after Honda shuts its factory in 2021. A final decision will be taken this year.

Mr Kanamori said jobs had been cut “to maximise efficiency”. The number employed at TS Tech fell from 742 in 2018 to 601 in the year to March 2019.

He wrote: “The directors believe that Honda is committed to run production until 2021 although at levels lower than production in the year ended March 31 2019.

“This has enabled the company to consider the future of the business and timing available to explore new opportunities.

"The company is still exploring new opportunities, the outcome of this will not be known until 2020.”

TS Tech’s parent company, based in Japan, was said to be looking at opportunities to expand business in Europe. The company has bases in Hungary and Germany supplying seats to the Volkswagen Touran MPV.

Last month, one TS Tech worker told the Adver staff were angry.

“I’ve lost sleep over this, my hands are shaking and I’ve seen people crying at work. It’s a horrible situation,” he said.

A TS Tech spokesman said at the time: "We are a close-knit business so it is incredibly difficult to think about this, but we have to consult on the future of our plant at Highworth and consider redundancies.

“No final decision has been made and we are committed to consulting both individually and collectively with all our associates and Unite the union on this proposal to explore our options and to support them in every way we can through this uncertain time,

“This includes a commitment to redundancy payments significantly in excess of statutory entitlement.

The closure of Honda's manufacturing plant in South Marston next year will have a knock-on effect further afield - supplier UYS in Oxford announced in its annual report that it intends to shut down its UK operations.

The company has been in consultation with the union since July about the 200 jobs which will be lost.