An engineering company employing 69 workers in east Belfast has gone into administration after getting into financial difficulties.
Scott ElectroMech Ltd manufactured electric motors which have been used around the world - in such diverse places as Formula 1 wind tunnels, Colorado ski-lifts and Chinese sugar refineries.
Twenty-three staff at the company have already been made redundant but it is hoped the remaining 45 jobs may be saved if a buyer for the remaining operational division can be found.
Robin Dunbar, one of the owners, said: "We had a bad year last year and made a loss. We had been due to move to new premises next month and had been paying double rent on the old plant and the new place and that made it worse."
Efforts to sell the company as a going concern failed and Ernst & Young was called in as administrator after the workforce was told last Friday the company was closing.
"There is no chance of selling it as a going concern in its present form but the administrator is in negotiations to sell off bits of the company," Mr Dunbar said.
An engineering company has operated under the Scott name on the Ravenhill Road for more than 100 years. A Danish company owned the firm from 1982 until 2004, when it was taken over by local management, including Mr Dunbar.