Mackie's cuts its staff by further 38

The workforce at the Belfast engineering company, Mackie International, has been reduced to 48 following yesterday's announcement by the receiver of a further 38 redundancies.

Mr Tom Keenan, of Deloitte and Touche, reiterated that prospects for the sale of Mackie and its associate business, Springvale Foundary, have diminished. "There have been no serious interests expressed in either business this week," he said. He said he was nearing the end of the business sale process and the sale of Mackie's assets would begin "within weeks" if nobody came forward at this stage.

"The whole emphasis has been on the business sale so far. We are always hopeful that someone will come forward at the last minute."

Of the Mackie business, only the electrical business subsidiary, Automatic Temperature Control (ATC), has been sold as a going concern to a group of former managers led by the chief executive, Mr Sul Sahota. Mr Keenan declined to say how much that business, which employs 60 people in manufacturing and installing air conditioning systems, was sold for.

The remaining textile machinery and foundry businesses, however, have not attracted buyers. Mr Keenan said he expected plenty of interest in the asset sale.

Mackie International employed 300 people at the beginning of the year. Its failure to secure £14 million sterling for the purchase of the Leicester-based Shield Group sparked its descent into receivership.

The last set of annual results show it suffered losses of £11.6 million sterling (€16.85 million) on sales of £14.5 million in 1997.