More than two-thirds of the workforce at Telford car manufacturing giants Ogihara Europe look set to lose their jobs, it was revealed today.

The company, based at the Hortonwood industrial estate, said 71 of the 100 jobs were under threat because of a restructure and low demand for products due to the economic downturn.

Bosses will soon enter into a consultation period with workers and unions.

Ogihara currently supplies major body pressings, assemblies and tooling to a number of vehicle makers.

It comes just a couple of months after 30 jobs were axed due to a fall in sales.

Speaking today Louise Alexander, senior human resources manager for Ogihara, said it was with “deepest and saddest regret” that 71 posts at the firm had come under review.

“Our parent company Ogihara Corporation, together with its owners Thai Summit, will implement a major restructure to our business activities in Europe with the result that our production activity will cease in the near future,” she said.

“Despite massive investment and determined efforts to retain our production facilities in the UK, Ogihara find it is not financially viable to continue with our production facility due to the extremely low demand for heavy stampings.

“It is now clear this demand is not going to increase to an economic level anytime soon.”

She added: “A number of positions that are directly linked to our production activity are proposed to be at risk of redundancy, and it is anticipated that a number of positions may be removed from the current structure.”

Miss Alexander said the company would do all it could to help those affected find new jobs.