WORTHINGTON Manufacturing - maker of parts for bras and one of Macclesfield's last textile businesses - is in big trouble, with 40 more job losses and their smart new factory, built after a fire a few years ago, going on the market.

Joe Dwek, the chairman of the parent company Worthington Group Plc, is expecting a rough ride at this Friday's annual shareholders' meeting but says: "There will be some bleating about inefficiency and incompetence but they have to realise what it is like to operate in a shrinking market."

The company shed 40 jobs at Easter when it decided to close its dye unit at the factory on Fence Avenue, now another 40 people have been laid off, leaving a rump of just 40 to carry on.

Joe Dwek, who lives in Wilmslow, confirmed they are about to sign the lease on a factory unit at Lyme Green and they have already put the Fence Avenue headquarters on the market at £3.1 million.

He has now taken over the job of Chief Executive as well as chairman of the shrinking company and says he is drawing just £50 a week for both jobs and paying his own expenses. "If I am going to say to people they have to take pain I cannot refuse to do it myself," he said.

In the company's annual report he says: "This has been a very difficult year for your Group with many of our plans not reaching expectations."

In fact, the group made an operating loss for the year of £2,082,000, turnover almost halved and the cost of losing staff hit the bottom line.

The business is facing problems on many fronts including trying to bolster the pension fund with £313,000 paid in this year and large payments planned for the next nine years.

The Macclesfield operation lost £261,000 as well as the £422,000 cost of closing the dye house.

Joe Dwek said: "We are fighting a difficult battle, with Marks and Spencer orders slow to come in and most customers preferring to source ready-made products from the Far East.

"I have taken the board down the route of having some semblance of a business for the next couple of years. A smaller business may survive and the building in Macclesfield is worth £3.1million.

"People have lost their jobs but our turnover is much reduced and there is not much I can do. The reality is that people can get better jobs in Macclesfield stacking shelves at Tesco and even some senior managers are asking to be made redundant because they don't see a future in the business."

Shareholders will not be the only people concerned at the dramatic downsizing of the business. One skilled member of Worthington's staff who contacted the Macclesfield Express complained that management were not addressing the problem of falling sales and said: "The managing director sits on a whopping salary while presiding over 80 redundancies."

She predicted that more workers will leave as the workload on them increases and the move to Lyme Green makes it more difficult to get to work.

The annual report says that Managing Director John Smith earned £115,000 in salary and benefits in 2004, up from £41,000 in 2003. Finance Director Timothy Roberts earned £70,000.

It also says: "For some years now your Group has experienced the continuing decline of the UK textile and clothing market and the omens are far from good because the bottom of the market has probably not yet been reached."

Workers will also be concerned that the company's pension scheme is in difficulties. The annual report says that financial specialists have carried out a review that shows the current shortfall of the scheme has reduced from £2.9 million two years ago to £1.7 million.

Workers in Macclesfield, make components for bras and other lingerie which are manufactured overseas and then returned to the UK as complete garments for sale in the High Street, especially to Marks & Spencer.

The annual report says that this business "might now be profitable in the latter half of the year and must be enhanced by further cost reductions."

The company has tried manufacturing abroad and says it's operation in Morocco has performed well and may help them if they have to move manufacturing abroad.

Joe Dwek tells shareholders in the annual report that: "The comfort zone remains the fact that we have £5.8 million of net assets which if turned into cash, could present a very attractive proposition for a merger or reversal, and this could be a reality if we are forced to reconsider the position in Macclesfield, which will determine our corporate strategy going forward."

It seems that over £3 million of that comfort zone is about to be realised as the Fence Avenue site goes up for sale and the annual meeting being held there on Friday will be the last on those premises.