A NEW company has been formed by managers of a Stokesley engineering firm which recently laid off 140 workers.

NEL Power has been formed from Nepco Europe and at least 50 employees could be back at work in the new year.

The Nepco offices are at Stokesley industrial estate. The firm grew rapidly and its workforce trebled in little more than a year. Among its staff were highly-skilled draughtsmen, computer-aided designers and engineers. It also employed freelance technical specialists in the area.

Many of its employees had long-standing connections with Teesside's power and engineering industries.

The layoffs came after parent company Enron Europe went into administration after a £6bn merger deal with rival firm Dynegy collapsed.

Talks were held between Nepco managers, banks and accountancy firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which was handling the administration.

Although Nepco was profitable and had a major power station contract, PWC said it could not continue operating with the collapse of its parent company. Thankfully, the Stokesley managers were able to secure financial backing to form the new company.

Staff at other Enron-connected sites on Teesside were told their jobs were safe.