WYRE Forest's carpet industry has been dealt a "shattering blow" with the announcement of a further 123 job losses.

Carpets of Worth, which made 57 workers redundant last week, is now shedding almost half the workforce at its Stourport-on-Severn factory and consolidating operations at Kidderminster as part of a four-year reorganisation plan.

In January, 35 job losses cut employee numbers down to about 300 and the continual downturn in domestic trade has led to the latest decision, which will see 66 job cuts at Kidderminster and 57 at Stourport.

Gordon Rudd, general secretary of the Kidderminster-based Carpet Weavers Union, said it was expected that the the Stourport site would be closed by the end of the year, although the firm's warehouse would remain in the town "at least for the foreseeable future".

Mr Rudd, a former employee with the 140-year-old company, said union representatives at the firm were "shattered" at the number of job losses at Carpets of Worth, which 10 years ago employed about 1,200 staff.

"This is without doubt a bad blow for the area," he said.

"While commercial sales to places such as hotels and pubs are holding up, the domestic side of the industry is continuing to struggle.

"The fashion for stripped floors has hit the industry hard and some of the margins demand by some retailers are too high.

"The seems to be a lack of public spending power at present because of the high pound and many cheap imports also being available."