Tomkins, the former Walsall bucklemaker, is to cut its last link with the West Midlands with the closure of a factory in Cheltenham.
The London-based engineering group yesterday confirmed its plan to shut its Formlo business with the loss of 103 jobs.
They are among the continuing job cull at the loss-making group which will see 1,600 jobs go this year on top of the 3,900 redundancies previously announced.
The vast majority of the cuts among the group’s 30,000 staff worldwide are likely to fall in the US which accounts for 60 per cent of the group’s turnover.
Tomkins has about 300 UK staff, although the group had previously announced plans to close the Cheltenham factory as well as one at St Neots, Cambridgeshire. It also has a plant in Dumfries, Scotland, which is being expanded.
The business, whose range of industrial products includes hosing and tubing as well as power transmission system, posted a loss before tax of $114.9 million (£69.3 million) for the first half of 2009, compared with a previous $61.3 million dollar (£37 million) profit.
Chairman David Newlands reported improved trading in June and July but warned that “the outlook remains uncertain”.
Tomkins plans to close 28 plants this year under the restructuring of the business, which it hopes will save it $150 million (£90.6 million) a year by 2011.
It hopes the job cuts will put the group on a stronger footing for recovery, and is looking to achieve growth through higher sales of ‘green’ products.
But the demand slump across markets sent revenues spiralling by a third to $2 billion (£1.2 billion) in the first half.
The business began life in 1925 as the F.H. Tomkins Buckle Company in Walsall but embarked on a major expansion programme in the 1980s that saw it take over US gunmaker Smith & Wesson and British baker Rank Hovis McDougall.
