THE company behind pension misery for hundreds of Hampshire workers is to shut down, it has emerged.

The gates at Chandler's Ford manufacturer APW Electronics are soon to close permanently, once the last remaining work is completed.

More than 200 staff will have been laid off since the US-owned company was overwhelmed by its debt and collapsed into administration in January.

Now administrators have confirmed what the few remaining staff had long feared - that no buyer for the business could be found and its assets are to be sold off.

A statement from administrators Kroll said: "We can confirm that no suitable offers have been received to acquire APW UK Ltd as a going concern.

"Regrettably, we have therefore had to take the decision to close the business, and we are currently in the process of selling assets to realise the maximum value for creditors. This means, unfortunately, that once this process is complete, the remaining employees will be made redundant."

Of the skeleton staff remaining after a succession of major redundancies last month, 14 have been laid off with the final 12 workers kept on to manage the closure of the Electron Way facility.

Former APW worker Karen Deighton said: "I'm surprised it didn't close earlier. I thought it was going to go under in 2002.

"It was once a good company. A lot of people used to enjoy working there and built up a family style relationship with lots of friends there, so it is sad."

APW first hit the headlines when, in 2004, bosses axed the company pension scheme because of a £55m black hole. Staff, who lost up to 80 per cent of their retirement savings, were told it had to be done to stop the company going under.

Not long after there were redundancies, before APW's business hit the buffers in September last year when a major order was cancelled, triggering catastrophic cash flow problems.

Another former member of staff, Derek Tubby, said: "I'll be glad to see it shut down. All I've got tying me to that place now is my pension, which it looks like I'm not going to get. I lost 80 per cent of it after 17 years.

"It used to be a brilliant company and then the Americans bought it. For me the place is a thorn in the backside."

Eastleigh MP Chris Huhne said: "This has been a shocking story of mismanagement from beginning to end."