Firm's Christmas shutdown extended

A Staffordshire engineering firm has been forced to extend its Christmas shutdown period due to a fall in demand from customers.

Cannock-based ThyssenKrupp, which supplies parts to the car industry, has said it will give employees two weeks off as there is not enough work coming in.

The company's plant in Fareham, Hampshire, will have a four-week shutdown as car manufacturers have stopped ordering parts because of a complete meltdown in new car sales.

The economic downturn and the credit crunch which is making it harder for people to find loans means car makers are seeing the bottom fall out of their market which is turn is having a knock-on effect with their suppliers across the country.

Earlier this year the company axed 60 temporary workers in the summer and was forced to look for voluntary redundancies from its 900 strong workforce. A total of 34 staff went then but bosses at the international company say they are doing all they can to minimise the impact of the downturn.

Sue Boulton, human resources manager at ThyssenKrupp in Cannock said: "Currently we are struggling like everyone in the automotive industry at the moment but we are doing better than most as one of our best customers at the moment is Nissan."