Shocked workers at another factory in Chichester have been told their jobs are to be axed later this year.

Components firm Autoliv is shutting its factory on the city's Terminus Road industrial estate with the loss of around 100 jobs.

Autoliv is based on the same estate as yoghurt and dessert giant St Ivel which recently announced that its plant was to shut with the loss of 185 jobs.

Last year 230 redundancies were announced by Webbs Country Foods after the company decided to close its chicken processing operation in the village of Halnaker near Chichester.

Autoliv has blamed high production costs for the decision to shut its factory which makes steel and plastic components for the car seat belt industry.

The company says production will be switched to countries such as Poland and Hungary where it is expanding its operations.

In a statement the company said the factory would close by the end of July.

Chichester District Council leader Jane Chevis said today: "I'm greatly saddened to hear news of this closure."

She promised the council would do all it could to limit the impact and help employees find new jobs.

The company had made it clear the closure was due to cheaper foreign labour costs.

"It is not a reflection on the workforce and the Chichester area and the company has already closed a plant in Sweden and moved it to Eastern Europe but I know this will be of little consolation to the employees involved."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.