Finsbury Orthopaedics, a ground breaking firm in the forefront of medical engineering, is making major redundancies at its Leatherhead offices.

The firm refuses to say how many jobs are to go or what percentage of its workforce are affected.

Finsbury Orthopaedics designs and makes artificial hip and knee joints. Most of the jobs affected are involved in manufacturing.

The firm, which has its headquarters in the Mole Business Park, Leatherhead, also has branches in Germany, Turkey and Australia.

At one stage it employed about 250 people at its Leatherhead offices but rumours circulating round the business park say 50 people have already lost their jobs and more are about to be made redundant.

The major part of the company’s business is in design and development.

As well as manufacturing its own products it also manufactures items designed by other firms and it is that part of the business which is most heavily affected by the redundancies.

Financial director Colin Smith said: “The numbers of redundancies is not something I can go into. It is not fair to members of staff to discuss numbers.

“We are making sensible changes,reacting to changing order patterns.

“The business is focusing on design and development and our own direct sales which is where we believe the future of the business lies.”

The firm still has three vacancies advertised on its website - all for regional sales staff.

The firm was founded by Mike Tuke, the present chief executive, who encourages school children to get involved in design and technology.

He recently paid a visit to Greenacres school in Banstead to present a Wii to the pupils as a prize for design work they took part in.