Engineering giant GKN Sankey today  announced it is to axe 90 jobs at its Telford plant. The move comes in a bid to save more than £2.24 million.

The redundancies are part of major cutbacks at the company’s Hadley Castle works which have already seen temporary lay-offs, staff being staff put on short time and the Christmas shutdown extended.

A nosedive in orders from Land Rover, one of the company’s main customers, is being blamed for the cuts.

Rob Ball, GKN human resources director, said: “We have been working hard with the trade unions to avoid redundancies, but everyone knows what is happening at Land Rover and Ford.

“The situation has been getting worse and the reality is we have got to a point where, mathematically, we have 90 people more than we need to operate.

“The problem with maths is it translates into 90 human beings and we don’t minimise that at all.”

Mr Ball said a 30-day consultation period began yesterday and the company was continuing to work with trade unions in an attempt to attract voluntary redundancies and early retirements.

Mr Ball said the savings made would equate to more than £25,000 for each job cut.

GKN employs 5,000 people in the UK. It is based in Redditch, Worcestershire, and has two plants in Birmingham, as well as the one in Telford.It announced at the end of last month it expected to see pre-tax, automotive profits down by 70 per cent.

The Hadley Castle works, which makes components employs about 950 people.