1,000 face axe as Brooke goes down

MORE than 1,000 jobs have been thrown into jeopardy after engineer Brooke Industrial Holdings called in administrators. The Altenative Investment Market-listed group, already suspended from the market, said it had failed to win backing from its bank HSBC.

Brooke, which also has operations in South Africa, Germany and the US, has been hit hard by the global economic recession. Its shares were suspended at around 6p on Tuesday, valuing the firm at just £600,000.

The firm posted widening interim losses last June and warned it saw no sign of recovery in its main markets.