Birmingham-based vanmaker LDV was yesterday placed into administration by a court, threatening up to 850 jobs and thousands more in the supply chain.
In addition to the 850-strong workforce at Washwood Heath, LDV employs 1,200 people in dealerships and is a major customer for local suppliers.
Attempts to sell LDV as a going concern have failed and the company has announced that there are no prospects for a management buyout.
Talks with one potential buyer, the Malaysian firm Weststar, broke down at the last minute last weekend.
LDV directors had hoped to persuade the government to agree to a £60m loan to secure the firm, but no ministers were available to meet them.
The Unite trade union’s response angered workers who, with the backing of Unite, had taken a ten per cent pay cut in March in the hope of saving their jobs.
Tony Woodley, Unite joint general secretary said: ‘This is a bitter blow for manufacturing and the West Midlands region in particular.
‘However LDV has been in a vulnerable situation for many years and today’s sad announcement is not due to any lack of effort by either Unite or the government to find solutions.
‘We must now redouble our efforts to give the beleaguered manufacturing industry the help it needs.’
The administrator announced that most of the workers would be sacked straight away.
The court appointed PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) as administrators yesterday morning.
PWC said it was making ‘the vast majority’ (810) LDV workers redundant yesterday afternoon.
PWC representative Rob Hunt said: ‘Due to the lack of funding it has, regrettably, been necessary to make the vast majority of the workforce redundant and we will retain a skeleton workforce of around 40 people to maintain the site.’