Jobs are under threat in St Helens as three companies are hit by the economic meltdown in just five days.
Ibstock Brick Factory has been axed with 56 jobs at risk, and two other businesses face an uncertain future.
Motorworld, a nationwide car part retailer, has been forced to streamline - with 95 branches closing. The two local stores in Fingerpost w
ill remain open but they have been taken over by Pacific Retail Group.
Textile store, Rosebys, has gone into administration, while accountancy firm KPMG LLP Restructuring search for a buyer. The company, which employs 2000 staff at its 280 stores, has found it difficult to trade in the current economic climate.
The six staff at the Rosebys store on Ardwick Street could lose their jobs. Five employees at Motorworld have been told their jobs are safe under new owner, Pacific Retail.
Dave Watts, MP for St Helens North, stressed that it is vital to bring new areas of employment into the town.
He said: "The current global financial crisis is hitting us all hard and it is impossible to avoid it.
"Jobs are crucially important to our local community and we need to bring in new recruiters - which is why I am backing the Parkside development which could result in 10,000 more openings.
"We can't just stop the world and get off it, we have to keep on going and making new opportunities."
Ibstock's Roughdales site has been a major brick producer since the late 1880s. Renowned sculptor Antony Gormley used Ibstock clay to make his Field of the British Isles which was created by schoolchildren in St Helens.
The company's managing director, Wayne Sheppard, said: "Due to the ongoing slowdown in the demand for bricks particularly from the new housing sector and the need to balance sales and production capacity whilst maintaining optimum efficiency, Ibstock Brick has today announced the proposed closure of its Roughdales, Funton and Ellistown factories."
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