Firm is sold and axed in one day

WORKERS at a British company making car airbags were told they would lose their jobs - just one working day after it was bought by a US firm.

Woodville Airbag Engineering was taken over a week ago last Friday - then on Monday its 304 workers were told that their work is being transferred to Romania.

The company in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, was sold by Smiths Group to Automotive Safety Components International of Greenville, South Carolina, for £3 million.

Now, after a storm of protest from the workers and the local MP, the Department of Trade and Industry says it will look into the case.

Woodville was making a loss of £100,000 a month - but it had a bulging order book to supply airbags to BMW, Mercedes, Fiat, Volkswagen, Seat, Ford, Jaguar, Audi, Citroen and Land Rover.

Its takeover gives the US firm a 27% share of the world airbag market, which raises major competition concerns, claim opponents of the deal. The DTI said the matter would be referred to the Office of Fair Trading.

This is the second time in a year that a foreign firm has bought a Derbyshire company and instantly sacked employees to move work elsewhere.

Biwater, a pipemaking company in Clay Cross, was taken over by French glassmaker St Gobain and closed.

ASCI said the Woodville jobs had to go because of the gloomy economic climate and the strength of the pound.

But Mark Todd, Labour MP for South Derbyshire, said: 'This explanation is hard to believe. Britain has the strongest economy in Europe - and if the exchange rate is the problem, why move outside the eurozone?

'It is clear that ASCI bought Woodville for its order book. And given that the decision to close took just two days, it could not have given much thought to making the company a going concern.'