Engineering giant GKN today axed 150 jobs at its Telford plant. The firm is closing three factories and making 473 people redundant across its operation.

And 150 of those will go at the company’s auto structures plant at Hadley Castle, which makes car parts.

Bosses today blamed a “dramatic” drop in customer orders for the job losses at Hadley Castle.  Another 90 jobs will go with the closure of aerospace sites in Luton and Burnley.

The company said its Hamstead forge facility in Birmingham would close by the end of the year and a factory in Walsall will shut in 2010.

Nigel Stein, GKN Automotive chief executive, said: “The actions being announced today are regrettable but absolutely necessary to respond to the global economic downturn that is particularly affecting the automotive industry. 

“We are in unprecedented times and we must protect our position as a leading global automotive supplier and ensure we are in a strong position to meet our customers’ needs now and when markets recover.” 

Workforce

GKN, which has a global workforce of about 42,000, announced last month that it had cut 2,800 jobs, including 90 at its Hadley Castle works, since October. 

The company warned at the time that, because of continuing deterioration in the global automotive markets, further redundancies were likely and closures a possibility.

Mark Pritchard, Wrekin MP, said today: “This is a huge blow to the dedicated and hard-working workforce, many of whom have worked at GKN and its predecessors for up to four decades.

“The Government needs to take immediate action to save this significant engineering capability which, once lost, will be gone forever. There must be urgent Government support given to protect the remaining jobs at GKN.”

GKN said it would invest £7million over the next three years upgrading the plant at Erdington, which will create jobs. 

GMB union official Joe Morgan said: “We will challenge these latest cuts at every stage possible to make sure they are genuine.”

By Lisa Rowley