Larbert-based James Jones and Sons have said the £20m expansion plans for the Lockerbie sawmill plant are on schedule despite a downturn in the timber trade.

The firm was forced to close its Dumfries site for a week to temporarily halt production in the face of the manufacturing slowdown however the company remains confident that the sawmill scheme will go ahead.

Managing director Ian Pirie said: "The project is absolutely on time, the main sawmill buildings are actually going up."

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Mr Pirie said he hoped the civil engineering elements could be completed later this year, with the mill in operation by autumn 2009.

Although the managing director said the company was facing the same pressures other firms were under.

Mr Pirie said: "The problems other people are facing in Dumfries and Galloway, our experiences are absolutely no different to them.

"We have staved off the biggest hits in production.

"The Lockerbie mill has been running at full capacity but we are having to monitor that on a week by week basis."

Mr Pirie said the slowdown in the housing market is not the only problem facing the timber industry, it is the general manufacturing slowdown.

(GK/JM)