WORKERS at a Pendle furniture manufacturer were today reeling under the announcement that 170 have lost their jobs.

The news came as Pendle MP Gordon Prentice and the local council promised to contact the receiver and do all they could to help save Buoyant's remaining jobs.

Receivers brought into Buoyant Upholstery, Nelson, on Tuesday have already had approaches from companies interested in purchasing the business.

But more than a third of the 450 full and part-time workers had been made redundant by yesterday morning. A spokesman for the receivers, chartered accountants Arthur Anderson, confirmed: "There have been 170 redundancies largely because the orders have fallen off so heavily that the labour force was too large for the business that there is.

"We want the business to continue. There has to be a creditors' meeting in three months' time, but that can be delayed. We want the best solution and that is what we will fight for."

Mr Prentice said: "Its a body blow for the town. We can ill-afford to lose as many jobs as this.

"But there were signs that the company was sailing into choppy waters. Manufacturing industry is certainly going through a difficult period at the moment.

"I shall be in touch with the receivers in the near future and will do everything I can to help them to try and find a buyer to save the firm and the jobs. "In the current economic climate people were hanging on to their money and were unwilling to make what the Americans call the 'big ticket' purchases like three-piece suites.

"I just hope that the market for furniture takes an up-turn in time for the receivers to save the company and the jobs."

Pendle Council is also seeking an early urgent meeting with the receiver.

Economic and development manager Colin Wilkinson said: "We are clearly very concerned at the prospects of such a large number of jobs being lost in the local economy.

"We are trying to make contact with the receiver and management at the factory, at the moment we are not exactly sure of how difficult the situation really is.

Some of the workers who were made redundant yesterday claimed there were only enough orders to keep the remaining workers in employment for three weeks.

Long-standing workers Michael McLoughlin, Chris Jordan and Bernie Jeffrey were among those who lost their jobs yesterday.

Chris, from Nelson, has worked for the firm for 17 years. He said: "We knew it was bad when they a made a man redundant who had worked for the firm for 25 years. "We were just left hanging about yesterday from 7.30am to find out what was going on - then we were told we were redundant."

Bernie, of Colne, was employed for 12 years. He said: "They must have been in a bit of a mess because they had to go to the bank twice to get our pay for this last week and we are going to have to apply to the Government to claim our redundancy."

Michael, of Nelson, has worked for the company for 15 years and he said the mood of workers was very despondent.

"Two thirds of the work force have been kept on while the receiver tries to find a buyer, but there is only enough work for three weeks," he said.

"Even if they find a buyer we have been told we won't get our jobs back. The redundancies have hit workers from every department right across the board."

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