SCORES of workers at a Hampshire electronics company are facing a bleak Christmas after being told the firm was taking off for Poland.

The move comes just 19 months after APW Electronics axed 30 jobs and assured the Daily Echo that remaining jobs would be secure for the near future and that it expected to expand.

But now 112 workers are facing the dole queue following the shock announcement that the Hedge End site is to close.

The American-owned company last hit the headlines in the summer when staff claimed management would not give employees time off to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

Bosses insisted that claim was without foundation.

The latest redundancies include all office and factory-floor employees at the company's base at Flanders Industrial Estate, where it makes cabinets for the telecommunications industry.

The company has a factory in Poland waiting to swing into operation shortly but a spokes-man said he could not confirm or deny that production would be switched to the country.

An unexpected and dramatic downturn in the hi-tech sector has forced the company to forfeit its more than £18m investment in the site.

APW has assured workers at its Chandler's Ford operation that their jobs are safe.

It also hopes to re-employ as many as 88 workers from Hedge End at the sister Chandler's Ford base following a formal redundancy process.

A worker, who asked not to be named, branded company bosses "scrooges".

The employee added: "I can't believe they are doing this to us just before Christmas.

"I don't know how I am going to be able to afford to buy my children presents."

A spokesman for APW said: "Hedge End is accumulating serious losses on a month-to-month basis and there's little or no prospect of that desperate situation changing or improving in the near future.

"The company has invested £18m in the plant over the last two years.

"The company would not be walking away from its investment unless it had explored every other possible option to closure.

"The current market conditions are the worst ever experienced. They have forced APW to review every part of its operation worldwide and not just in the UK to cut costs and to survive the current downturn.

"Over the next three months the people who are made redundant will be given extensive support by the company to find other jobs.

"There will be out-placement support and job shops to give people advice."

The company has sites across the country and in North America, the Far East and Europe.