Receivers at Ferranti axe 630 workers

RECEIVERS to Ferranti International, called in nine days ago after GEC withdrew a 1p-a-share bid, have made 630 of the company's 3,050 UK workforce redundant, writes Terence Wilkinson.

Most of the redundancies are at Ferranti's main office and factory sites at Oldham, Wythenshawe, Stockport and Poynton in Greater Manchester. More than 120 jobs will also be lost at the company's sites at Aldershot and Portsmouth.

John Talbot and Murdoch McKillop of Arthur Andersen, joint administrative receivers, said that more than 75 per cent of the job losses were planned by Ferranti's management before GEC's withdrawal pushed the company into insolvency.

But at the time Ferranti could not afford the cost of carrying out the redundancy programme and payments in lieu of notice.

In a letter to Ferranti workers, the receivers said the redundancies would be implemented today.

The letter adds: 'Whether further redundancies will be required will depend on the level of support received from our customers.

'We cannot continue work on loss-making contracts. In such cases, if terms cannot be re-negotiated or there is some other reason why work cannot continue, this will have an impact on future headcount levels.'