An engineering firm is to close its Huddersfield site with the loss of 11 jobs.

Belgium-based Hansen Industrial Transmissions, which makes gearboxes for use in a wide range of sectors, is axing its sales and service operations based at Nile Street, Longroyd Bridge.

The service centre has already closed with those operations switching to the firm’s factory in Antwerp. The sales operation is due to cease within the next few weeks, with those activities transferring to another office in Hull.

The move was criticised by Barry Sheerman, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Huddersfield, who urged action to create more jobs “that are locally controlled”.

A spokswoman for Hansen said the move was part of a long-term integration programme which was initiated following Hansen’s takeover by Japanese-based Sumitomo Heavy Industries Ltd in 2011.

She said a few of the employees at Huddersfield were likely to remain on board, while management would look to minimise the impact on those who would be made redundant.

Mr Sheerman said: “We are increasingly vulnerable in the UK to foreign companies that take over British businesses and either slowly or rapidly strip them out and I think this is what’s happened here.

“It is a sad state of affairs that the government has not woken up to this and we have no voice in Yorkshire to ring an alarm bell to say we must replace these jobs with jobs that are locally controlled.”

Hansen Industrial Transmissions designs, manufactures and supplies industrial gearboxes for machinery used in sectors such as chemicals, energy, material handling, mining, steel-making and food manufacture.

Its main manufacturing facility is in Antwerp while the Huddersfield site – once a much bigger concern – was one of several assembly, sales and service centres located in the UK, Brazil, China, South Africa and Australia.