Around 170 jobs are set to be axed at a major Midlands metals group after it said it was quitting a string of businesses. Metalrax has 1,000 employees across the region and four factories in the Black Country.

It will close its Bacol factory in Bromsgrove by May unless it can find a buyer.

The business has been losing £200,000 a month, chief executive Andrew Richardson revealed today.

He said Metalrax will also abandon its new factory in Romania which is losing £60,000 a month, selling the business within the next two years.

The company is also getting out of the less profitable manufacture of parts for the motor industry.

In addition the company has also parted company with its financial director, Bill Kelly, the former finance director of the Wolverhampton-based Beatties store chain before its takeover by House of Fraser.