Wheel firm to axe jobs

An award-winning wheel-making firm near Kidderminster is to axe 44 jobs because of a slump in orders.

And the recession bit deeper into the Wyre Forest economy with a separate announcement that the district council is to cut £100,000 from overtime bills and extend a spending freeze. The redundancies will be made at Titan Steel Wheels.

News of job cuts at the firm in Cookley follows a decision to axe about 50 contractors' jobs earlier in the year.

The company, a subsidiary of Titan Europe, is a leading manufacturer of wheels for earth-moving machines, auto-cranes and the mining industry.

The company, which gained the Queen's Award for Enterprise twice and the Queen's Award for Innovation, has blamed the credit-crunch and a depleting order book for the latest jobs losses. The firm employed 450 people at its peak earlier in the year and after the redundancies 355 will be on the pay roll.

Managing director Chris Akers said: "The order book is depleting somewhat.

"Obviously we have to downscale and unfortunately I don't know how far down this is going to go.

"The redundancies will come into force by the New Year and will affect 40 shop floor employees and four additional staff.

"The problem is that with the credit crunch everyone is trying to use up their stock before placing new orders.

"We are hoping that in the New Year we will see new orders coming through."

Meanwhile overtime costs for Wyre Forest District Council are to be slashed by £100,000 as bosses try to cut all unnecessary spending after £9 million of investment money was frozen in Icelandic bank accounts.

Although non-essential overtime was frozen some time ago, a target has now been set for department bosses to meet. A freeze on spending has also been extended to other projects except waste, recycling and the new cemetery project.