Mixed fortunes emerged today for two troubled companies with Tees Valley workers.
A buyer could be found for engineering company Hartlepool Fabrication within a week says joint administrator Gareth Roberts, of Oxfordshire-based Hurst Morrison Thomson.
But a further 20 redundancies were made at the Hartlepool firm.
Meanwhile union bosses revealed today almost all of the 49 workers at Northern Electric’s seven stores in Teesside and County Durham have lost their jobs.
Only a third of the original 90-strong workforce remains after Hartlepool Fabrication, which made the Angel of the North, went into administration last month.
Mr Roberts said: “We have three parties interested in taking over the company and I would hope to make an announcement within a week.”
He added: “It has been necessary to make redundancies as orders were finished.”
And as reported in later editions of yesterday’s Evening Gazette, administrators KPMG announced 402 out of Northern Electric Retail’s 500 workforce would be made redundant.
Dorothy Tokat, of the union Unison, said only store managers and some head office and superstore staff had been kept on.
She said: “All the workers are extremely worried and anxious and it is particularly bad coming this near to Christmas.”
Administrators are hoping to re-open some stores to sell remaining goods but no decision has been taken on which shops this will include.
Locally, the company has outlets in Middlesbrough, Stockton, Teesside Retail Park, Hartlepool, Redcar, Bishop Auckland and Darlington.
Northern Electric Retail is not owned by power firm Northern Electric Plc.
>From IC Teeside