THE future of the former Tooling Products firm at Langrish was assured this week with the announcement that it has been taken over by the French company Sermo.
As The Herald revealed last week, around two-thirds of the staff were made redundant by Tooling Products but for the remaining 50 workers, the future is now more certain.
Tooling Products was put up for sale in July when its parent company, the Glasgow-based Weir Group, announced it was streamlining business and withdrawing from non-core businesses, including Tooling Products.
The workforce was whittled down to 120 from 200 earlier this year and in 2000, and various efficiency measures were put into place to combat falling orders.
Remaining employees were told during the summer that their jobs were in danger.
But in August the Weir group went into negotiation with the privately owned French company, Sermo. This week a spokesman for Sermo said they had officially taken over on October 1.
She added that the company, which was founded in l966, now had five bases worldwide including two in France, one in Poland, one in Brazil and the latest at Langrish.
The Sermo group has around 800 workers and it specialises in the making of moulds for the automotive component market.
In the meantime a question mark still hangs over the future of the former Diametric factory on Ramshill in Petersfield which was taken over by Tooling Products when Diametric went into liquidation in l999.
There has not yet been a statement from the company on the future of the site, but Bryant Developments, which is planning to build homes off Kingsfernsden Lane behind the Ramshill factory, is believed to be interested in buying the site.