ONE of Daventry’s biggest companies this week announced it is to lay off 98 of its workers.
Engineering firm Cummins, based on the Royal Oak Way South, has revealed the jobs will be shed by as early as the start of November.
A company statement said that a reduction in demand had led to this action being taken.
A spokesman said: “Due to reductions in demand across all key business sectors including mining and power generation Cummins is reducing its Daventry workforce.
“The company currently employs 1200 people on site, and 98 production related positions will be made redundant.
“In reaction to initial short term reductions in demand, Cummins has already moved to flexible working with agreed lay-off periods between October 2012 and April 2013.
“However the longer term business forecast shows no sign of improvement, so further action is now needed through a change in shift patterns along with a reduction in the workforce.
“The company expects a number of these to be on a voluntary redundancy basis, and those affected would leave the business early in November.”
Cummins had tried to offset the short term reduction in demands and protect jobs by allowing staff to take up to a maximum of five days off in a pay period between October and April 2013.
The news follows a long period of growth for the firm, which opened in the town in 1973 and today employs a workforce of 1,200.
But it is not the first set of departures. Three years ago a total 330 jobs were lost following two rounds of redundancies.
However, Cummins, which manufactures industrial-sized diesel engines, had seemed to be bucking the trend in the current recession when announcing in April this year they were creating 70 new jobs.