NORTH-EAST manufacturing jobs have been lost to Italy after a company succumbed to falling orders, The Northern Echo can reveal.

Berco UK’s plant in Spennymoor, County Durham, is now up for sale.

Bosses say the move comes after a severe drop in demand.

The move has affected 18 workers, with officials revealing Berco’s factory in North-East Italy has benefited from the changes.

The Spennymoor site, on Green Lane Industrial Estate, was used to put the finishing touches to undercarriages used on track-mounted excavators.

However, officials said it struggled against increased competition from existing customers after they axed supplier agreements and began making more products themselves.

A spokeswoman said: “The company is responding to the massive fall in sales at the UK unit over the past three years.

“This reflects a sharp decrease in orders from key accounts in the UK who are now making in-house some products previously outsourced.

“As a result the company’s sales have almost halved in the past three years.

“With the continuing market weakness for tracked construction vehicles in the UK, this decline cannot be offset with other customer orders.”

She added Berco, which is part of the ThyssenKrupp group, will retain a UK sales office to handle customer demands.

Berco’s arrival in County Durham allowed it to tap into a skilled local workforce, where people had lost their jobs following the demise of nearby factories such as Electrolux and Phillips.

In 2012, The Northern Echo reported how work had been completed on the 20,000th set of excavator tracks at Berco’s plant.

However, the factory is now up for sale, with HTA Real Estate helping oversee the future of the Meadowfield Avenue base.

Nick Atkinson, HTA Real Estate director, said: “This is a rare opportunity given the current shortage of big sheds in the North-East.

“We are only aware of one other comparable unit of this size on the market in the region.

He added the remaining part of the building has already been let to Stanley Black & Decker after a refurbishment.