ONE of Kidderminster's largest employers has made 14 of its nightshift workers redundant.

The news of the job cuts was broken to workers of Ceramaspeed when they turned up for work on Monday night.

Ceramaspeed, in Zortech Avenue, makes heating elements for cookers and employs around 400 people in Kidderminster.

Lower than anticipated sales in Europe were blamed for the decision to make the assembly workers redundant.

Managing director, Kevin Roberts, said the company regretted having to take the action and its effect on those employees who were losing their jobs but added it had been necessary to balance production of heaters with sales demand.

"We started out in 2005 a little bit quieter than we expected to," said Mr Roberts, adding: "We need to reduce our output in line with sales forecasts."

The job cuts were the first Ceramaspeed had made in its manufacturing operation in Kidderminster for seven years, Mr Roberts explained, saying: "We have had pretty stable employment."

He went on: "This is 14 people out of 400 and this is the first redundancy for seven years. That says something about the company and how we try to manage these things. In this case, we had no option, really."

One of the workers losing their job, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: "This came completely out of the blue," adding: "I feel absolutely gutted."

Ceramaspeed sells 16 million heaters - worth £61 million - a year from its three manufacturing plants in Kidderminster, Tennessee in the United States and Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia.

It supplies most of the world's appliance companies, with its major European customers including Electrolux, Whirlpool and Bosch.