350 engineering and manufacturing jobs lost

145 employees are set to lose their jobs at an engineering firm in County Antrim.

Its after Williams Industrial Services in Mallusk went into administration.

The company said it ran into a number of commercial issues and substiquently ran out of funds.

They said the redundancies would happen with immediate effect.

Commenting on the Administration appointment, WIS chairman John Toner, said:

“Having explored all possible rescue options, it is with deep regret that the directors have had to take steps to have the company placed into Administration.”

Mallusk-based WIS was established in 1983 and is one of Ireland's largest providers of environmental engineering solutions, specialising in water-treatment and anaerobic digestion technologies.

The company employs approximately 145 people directly and has annual turnover which peaked at around £50 million. In addition, Tot Technical NI Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of WIS, employing approx. 15 people and trading from adjacent premises, is set to go into liquidation.

Around half the company’s sales of water-treatment and anaerobic digestion solutions are to customers outside Northern Ireland, primarily in GB and the Republic of Ireland.

Confirming the appointment, PwC’s Stephen Cave said:

“The company ran into a number of commercial issues on some of its key contracts in recent months, culminating in contractual disputes which had a significant and adverse impact on trading cashflow”

“Despite endeavours to resolve the matters and secure a way forward, the company ran out of funds, leaving the directors facing the decision to enter Administration”

“Whilst we are urgently reviewing the company’s financial and trading position, we have unfortunately had to make the majority of the workforce redundant with immediate effect

Meanwhile, more than 200 job losses have been confirmed at another manufacturing company in Northern Ireland, union leaders said.

Schlumberger, which constructs equipment used in the oil and gas industry, previously announced proposals to close its plant in Newtownabbey this year due to prolonged downturn in the industry.

Unite the Union warned 205 posts were doomed after the multinational confirmed to workforce representatives that it would reject a local management rescue bid.

Regional officer Susan Fitzgerald said: This decision demonstrates very clearly that corporate profits are the only determinant when it comes to Schlumberger corporate management.

Today they confirmed to workforce representatives that they had rejected a local management counterproposal which offered a way to save some of the jobs on site through production diversification.

The proposal would have resulted in a significant increase in operating utilisation rates but was rejected by a corporate management who remain intent on offshoring production to low cost centres in Mexico and China and back to the United States.''

The firm saw its revenue during the last three months of last year grow by 3%. Cashflow for the whole year was worth 5.7 billion USD, a recent statement said.

Ms Fitzgerald added: Regardless of the huge profits that they have made from this workforce, Schlumberger's sole objective appears to maximise profits through a race to the bottom on labour costs.''

The company previously blamed a slump in the sector and said the oil and gas industry was going through the most severe downturn of the past 30 years, with operators significantly reducing their investment