Staff at car maker Daewoo were today told 113 jobs were being axed.

More than 750 people who work at the technical centre in Worthing were warned in May that the Korean company had hit a severe cash crisis and to be prepared for job losses.

Today staff were called to a meeting and told of the redundancies and offered individual pay-off packages.

Workers will be called to meetings individually with managers to talk about whether they want to leave immediately or stay until the end of the month.

Cuts are being made across all departments and staff will be paid until the end of the month regardless of when they leave.

The company said an "exhaustive review" of the research and development facility had been held to try to minimise Daewoo's global restructuring.

Managing director Jim Mason said: "We are very sad that it is necessary for us to take these measures at all.

"These are staff who have been tremendously loyal and hard-working. We've had to make difficult decisions in terms of our structure in order to preserve key skills that will enable current and future projects to continue."

Workers' hopes were raised when Ford were confirmed as the sole bidder for Daewoo and talks are still taking place.

Problems started for Daewoo when Korea went into economic crisis in 1997 and the car giant was put on the market.

Staff were warned redundancies could be made when the firm ran into trouble after banks in Korea asked the firm to cut back on company overheads.

A spokesman for Daewoo said: "This is the first time we have announced job losses.

"Unfortunately the Ford situation hasn't really affected the outcome.

"We were hoping desperately that talks with Ford would come to fruition quickly and save jobs but the process has been really drawn out and we have had to go ahead with redundancies.

"The redundancies will be from all areas of the company and we are trying to keep them to a minimum."

The technical centre boasts some of the most advanced high-tech development facilities in the country.

The Matiz, one of Daewoo's latest models, was created by designers based in Worthing.

Daewoo has the capacity to build around two million cars a year, with plants in Eastern Europe as well as in South Korea.