THE future of the former Tooling Products engineering works site at Langrish is once again uncertain less than two years after it was taken over by a French company.
The 3.5 acre site with factory and office accommodation totalling nearly 53,000 square feet is up for sale.
Two years ago around two-thirds of the staff were made redundant by Tooling Products but the remaining 50 workers were set to be taken on by the French injection mould manufacturers Sermo.
Tooling Products had been put up for sale in July 2001 when its parent company, the Glasgow-based Weir Group, announced it was streamlining business and withdrawing from non-core business including Tooling Products.
Sermo took a three-year lease on the site from October 1, 2001. A spokeswoman for the company said at the time: ÒThis acquisition fits SermoÕs goal to be EuropeÕs leading injection mould manufacturer and to be a global operator in line with its major customers.Ó
The site has planning permission for B2 industrial use. It has been a precision engineering works since the l930s, when Tooling Products was founded by the Talbot-Ponsonby family. It manufactured munitions during the second world war, and before the family sold the company it built the mould for the nose cone of Concorde