ONE of Hampshire’s most famous and successful companies is set to lay off almost a third of its workforce.

Southampton’s Griffon Hoverwork, a world leader in the hovercraft sector, has a launched a redundancy process which could see 43 of its 142-strong workforce lose their jobs.

The shock announcement came just days after the firm had announced that one of two new cross-Solent craft being built for Hovertravel was about to embark on sea trials.

However, once the two £5 million hovercraft - which are due to go into service between Ryde and Southsea this summer - leave Griffon’s yard at Woolston, the firm’s order book will be almost empty.

Managing director Adrian Went said that the long-term future of the firm looked healthy and that the firm had a “tremendous lead book” with tenders worth £100 million.

Mr Went explained that Griffon although consistently won their tenders but many of their potential orders were with foreign governments who were slow to make decisions.

“Unfortunately we don’t have any influence over their time frames - it's immensely frustrating,” he told the Echo.

He said that even if a new order was placed tomorrow there would be delays before work could begin and all the workforce would be involved so the redundancies would still go ahead.

Redundancies were being made across all departments, including management and design, confirmed Mr Went, but the area likely to be hardest hit was outfitting – who work on the final trim.

The MD said that it was possible that their tasks could be done by other technicians at the Woolston yard.

Mr Went admitted that Griffon was operating in a niche market and was seeking to diversify.

The firm was already building aluminium hulls for Autonomous Service Vehicles, the Portsmouth-based manufacturer of unmanned boats for the defence sector.

Griffon also has high hopes for its diesel electric hovercraft the 995ED – two prototypes of which are in production.

The firm will also be demonstrating its successful 2000TD craft in the United Arab Emirates next month as part of a package that has been assembled by companies from the government-backed BISEN consortium.

Griffon has been involved in the manufacture and operation of hovercraft since they were first conceived, more than 50 years ago, and the founders of the business worked alongside inventor Sir Christopher Cockerell.

The firm and has customers in more than 40 countries, across five continents.

Griffon hovercraft are used as ferries, lifeboats, mobile medical clinics and troop carriers and also carry out police and customs duties and border patrols.

It is part of the Bland Group, which also owns Hovertravel, and the company moved its factory from Hythe to Merlin Quay on the Itchen in 2011 in order to increase its manufacturing capacity.

In 2013 the Griffon received the Queen’s Award for Enterprise.