A specialist engineering company has made 40 people redundant at its Wantage headquarters.

Bosses at Macdermid Autotype, which specialises in a pioneering coating technology for items like mobile telephones, blame the cuts on a downturn in the consumer electronics industry in the Far East.

Managing director Peter Levinson said: “It is a very difficult time, particularly in China, where there has been a significant downturn in the industry.”

The losses further swelled the ranks of recent redundancies in Oxfordshire, which last week passed the 1,000 mark over a six-month period.

The Macdermid announcement is also another blow for the Wantage area, which recently saw vehicle components supplier Sonas Automotive, in East Challow, taken into administration putting 71 jobs at risk.

Macdermid Autotype employs 300 people in Wantage, making it one of the town’s major employers.

The company, which was founded in 1869, won a Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2005.

Mr Levinson also confirmed many staff would be having their hours and wages cut by 10 per cent in a bit to avoid more job losses.

About 15 redundancies at the factory have been made up of people’s temporary contracts coming to an end, and retirement.

The 40 jobs takes the total of private jobs lost in Oxfordshire since last July to 1,045.

They include 290 agency workers at the Cowley Mini plant, 323 at the nine branches of Woolworths, which have all now closed, and 106 at the Alden Press in Witney, which has shut down.

A further 308 positions are at risk including those at Sonas Automotive, which was hit by the collapse of Wagon Automotive in the UK.

A spokesman for administrator Pricewaterhousecoopers said a buyer was still being sought.