The announcement came after staff were told of a company reorganisation that included the buyout of Petersfield magnetic card manufacturer Mids and Horsey for 3.4m.

In a statement to the employees, ID Data managing director Michael Stewart said: We propose to restructure the company and carry out card manufacture and banking personalisation to Petersfield, and retail personalisation in Corby.

We propose to relocate a large proportion of card manufacture to an offshore facility, and the Profold and associated wrapping equipment would be moved from Lewes to Corby under this proposal.

But GPMU branch officer for the south of England Andrew Harden described the Lewes workers as being in shock at the decision. As recently as last week the company had held a staff briefing suggesting a more positive outlook for the site, including contracts running through to 2010.

Harden said: We are currently in talks with the company and at this stage we have asked them to reconsider their plans and discuss with local union representatives what options exist for retaining employment at the Lewes site. We havent given up hope yet.

The market conditions that have affected ID Data are not new. The company has had time to retrain and re-equip the Lewes site and make it viable. Instead they have opted to buy another company and move the work there.

"Our members want to know why their jobs are going and why the company didnt invest in them?

Stewart said the reorganisation was necessary in a bid to grow the company and bring it back into profit. For the six months to 30 September 2003, ID Data had a turnover of 5.4m, a 48% reduction compared to the previous year.

It also increased its losses to 1.7m compared to 1.3m the same period in 2002.

New contract wins for this year include 2 million Visa and Mastercard chip cards over the next two years, worth 1.5m a year, and a three-year contract for GE Capitals charge-cards worth 1m a year.

The company has also won contracts to print more than 12 million pre-paid telephone cards over the next year and has been shortlisted by Buypass to manufacture 2 million multi-application smart cards for the Norwegian Lottery.

by Tony Brown