Firm's loss a 'body blow' to town

The company manufactures and distributes lighting

The mayor of a Cornish town has described the loss of 260 jobs from one of the area's biggest employers as a "body blow".

Fitzgerald Lighting, which has been based in Bodmin for 30 years, has gone into administration.

The company manufactures and distributes industrial, commercial and domestic lighting.

The administrators KPMG said it knew staff would be hoping to receive redundancy payments before Christmas.

This is heartbreaking news for everyone at Fitzgerald and in Bodmin Dan Rogerson, North Cornwall MP

Bob Micek, Mayor of Bodmin, said: "Fitzgerald is a significant cornerstone to Bodmin's economy.

"They've been here well over 30 years and lots of people have worked there over time.

"I think the whole town is going to be affected by it.

"This is a body blow to us when we thought we were turning the corner with a lot of new economic development."

Payments meeting

North Cornwall MP, Dan Rogerson, said: "This is heartbreaking news for everyone at Fitzgerald and in Bodmin.

"We are all proud of what the firm has achieved in the past.

"I know that [managing director] Peter Fitzgerald and his team have been trying everything they can do to prevent this turn of events."

Richard Hill, from the administration firm KPMG, confirmed that 260 people had been made redundant on Monday.

He said the receivers were "mindful" that Christmas was approaching and a representative from the Redundancy Payments Service was due to visit Fitzgerald on Wednesday to try to speed up statutory redundancy payments owed to former employees.

Normally this can take four to six weeks to pay out, he said.