A FORMER director of taxi and components group Manganese Bronze, a major Ipswich employer, has received £134,240 compensation after resigning, according to the company's recently published annual report.

A FORMER director of taxi and components group Manganese Bronze, a major Ipswich employer, has received £134,240 compensation after resigning, according to the company's recently published annual report.

Barry Widdowson, who was managing director of the London Taxis International division, resigned from the board in January this year. He also received £45,433 in salary for the part of the year he served.

The report also shows that chief executive Ian Pickering received a bonus of £10,000 during the financial year to July 31, 2001.

Together with his basic salary of £139,101 benefits and pension contribution his total package for the year was £181,003, up from £176,572 in the previous year. Chairman Jamie Borwick received £104,342 in salary as part of a £143,693 package down from £212,348.

During the year turnover fell by 12 per cent to £115 million and the group made a pre-tax loss of £1 million against a profit of £4.8 million in the previous year. Taxi sales fell from 3,391 units to 2,588.

In his chairman's statement Mr Borwick described it as a difficult year for the group which operates MBC Precision Components and MBC Advanced Sintering of Hadleigh Road, Ipswich.

Mr Borwick said the company was at an "early stage in its transition from being a manufacturing business towards being substantially a supplier of products and services to the £4.5 billion taxi and private hire industry."

During the current financial year the company will launch a new service called Zingo to help passengers hail the nearest available taxi using their mobile phone.

The number of people employed by the group during the year rose to 980 against 949 in the previous year.