EIGHTEEN engineers with a Bury-based company have become casualties of the north-south divide.

The workers at Miller's Vanguard have been made redundant in a move aimed at achieving major cost cutting, maintaining its profit targets and the security of jobs for the remaining 190 staff.

Engineers at the Bury plant regularly travel south to carry out maintenance work for a range of supermarket and other clients.

Given the high concentration of stores in the south east, Miller's reconsidered its traditional set-up whereby engineers commute south from the north west and stay away from home during their working week

The firm says it would be better equipped to have a larger resource of engineers based in the south east and reduce the numbers who commute from the north each week.

Miller's Vanguard had recruited more than 100 new staff in April following a £4.5 million, three-year contract to supply food preparation maintenance to Sainsbury's supermarkets across the UK.

Managing director Brent Miller commented: "We are proud to have retained more than 150 north west-based staff of our 190 total employees. We now have the optimum number of engineers throughout the country and our remaining, expert Bury-based engineers can be assured their jobs won't be affected in any way."

On Monday, Mr Miller called engineers off the road to conduct one-to-one meetings to inform them there would be no further job losses among the company's north west staff.

The business was launched in 1967. In 2002, Miller's was bought by Aga Foodservice Group for £12.8 million.