A HAMPSHIRE ship re-fitter has collapsed with debts of £3.1m, leaving small suppliers across the region fearing ruin.

Suppliers counting the cost of the sudden demise of MSC Europe are now angered by directors' plans to buy back the business out of administration and carry on trading.

All 28 remaining staff of the Calmore company, who had not been paid for four weeks, were laid off by administrators on Friday.

Scores more workers for suppliers also face losing their jobs, with companies left to cope with unpaid debts - some as high as £170,000.

MSC owes an estimated £3.1m, much of it to small Hampshire firms and it is feared some could go to the wall as a result.

MSC bosses say they too are a victim of non-payment by suppliers, particularly an unnamed "international shipyard" which they say failed to make payments on a key £2.4m contract. This triggered a cash flow problem, which was too severe for the firm to survive.

Sources close to the company claim it is owed £3.6m of recoverable debt they expect to get back.

MSC said: "As the non-payments continued, the situation became more precarious and the cash flow was severely affected. Negotiations to reach an agreed way forward continued for several weeks before breaking down late last week."

Suppliers and former MSC staff contacted the Daily Echo to tell of their outrage at directors John Wood and Chris Rogers' plans to buy the company back and continue trading.

The pair hope to be in business again this week and say they plan to hire back half the staff in the short term and "make it up to them".

A former employee, who did not want to be named said: "I am dumbfounded. I resigned because I hadn't been paid for five weeks and no one was telling us anything and it was quite apparent there was no finance in the company.

"Presumably I am going to be out of pocket £3,500-£4,000 in wages and expenses, which is something I can't afford. I am really, really angry and I am not the only one.

"For it to go under and then to have them coming back and starting again, you wonder how it can happen."

Another former employee said: "I have been treated despicably by the two directors. I am shaking with rage at the audacity of it."

Established in 1998, MSC, which has no connection with the Mediterranean Shipping Company, includes cruise lines, ferry companies, oil rig operators and super-yacht manufacturers among its customers.

But despite big names like P&O ferries and Wightlink on its books, worries mounted as suppliers reported invoices going unpaid and even cheques bouncing.

One supplier said: "They owed me money and bounced a cheque on me three times. They owe me around £3,600 after dealing with them for 18 months and I'm not expecting to see any of it. I know one overseas company that was owed around £150,000 and another UK company that was owed around £160,000.

"I was sick as a dog when I heard what they had done. It's not on."

Southampton electrical firm Retail Electrical Services may have to fold, with as many as 32 people losing their jobs, if the £170,000 it says it was owed by MSC can't be claimed.

A spokesman said: "If we don't get the money there's a 99 per cent chance it will put us out of business. I employ 32 people and they'd lose their jobs. I don't think there's any money for me though. I expect to get nothing."

Another fuming supplier said: "We've had quite a few bad dealings with these people over the past 18 months. We are about £15,000 down. Now we have to try and claw that back. If they can just start up again, it is outrageous. It makes me so angry."

One supplier, who did not want to be named for fear of damaging her business, said she was faced with losing her life savings.