MORE than 150 jobs are under threat in Basingstoke after two firms announced plans to slash their workforces.

As many as 120 posts look likely to be shed from Urbis Lighting, a street lighting manufacturer based in Telford Road, Houndmills. And a further 35 people could lose their job at APPH Group, a long-established aerospace company in the Kingsland Industrial estate at Daneshill.

The redundancies are a further blow to the town’s economy, with a growing list of well-known firms cutting jobs over the last 12 months including Alberto Culver, ST Ericsson and Friends Provident.

Staff at Urbis Lighting were told of the redundancy plans in a letter on Friday.

Managing director Ian Pratt said plans to scale down manufacturing at its 12,000sqm premises were caused by changes in the street lighting industry, which has moved towards LED technology, which is sourced from the Continent.

The bulk of the company’s manufacturing will move to a factory in Spain, which is owned by Urbis Lighting’s parent company Schreder Group GIE.

Some 180 of the firm’s 202 staff are based in Basingstoke, where it has been since 1984. It is expected that sales, marketing, customer services and supply chain operations will continue in the town, with engineering posts most at risk.

Mr Pratt said: “Given our local manufacturing history, we are genuinely very sorry to have to make these changes but they have become unavoidable due to radical changes in the street lighting market and the need to secure the future of our business.

“We will do our absolute best to help those employees affected by these changes.”

He said the company will retain a small capability in Basingstoke to build its decorative product range, develop prototypes and carry out special production runs.

Mr Pratt added: “The difference between Basingstoke and Spain is that the Spanish factory has been purpose-built, it’s considerably larger and has land around it that it can expand to. It also has the modern technology we require for LEDs.

“The Basingstoke factory reflected the size of the business at the time – it’s quite cramped so a change would have had to be made in any case.”

A statutory 90-day consultation will begin with staff in mid-March, the company confirmed.

Meanwhile, bosses at APPH Group, which designs and manufactures hydraulics systems for aircraft, intends to close its Basingstoke base later this year, with all 35 posts under threat.

A month-long consultation with staff has already begun and should conclude this week.

The company was formerly known as Trinity Aerospace before it was purchased by BBA Aviation, APPH’s parent company, in 1996. Bosses confirmed they are centralising APPH’s operations at its headquarters in Runcorn, Cheshire.

A spokesman said: “There is no closure date at this stage and we won’t know until after the consultation process – but it is a safe bet it will be later this year.”

An APPH employee, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Gazette that staff were angry at the way the process has been carried out.

He said: “The manager just came out and read to us from a letter and then walked off. There was no apology that this had happened, he was completely remorseless. It had been expected for some time really, but we are all gutted with the way that this has happened.”

The employee said he expects the workforce to depart by June. While some have been given the chance to move to Runcorn, only a few have expressed an interest in doing so.