The former headquarters of a giant engineering group now stands empty after 200 staff were redeployed or made redundant.

The TI Group had its European headquarters at Lambourn House, Abingdon, until it merged last year with engineering compnay Smiths Group.

A spokesman for Smith's said about 50 former employees at the office had been redeployed within Smiths or had taken jobs with TI Automotive, which has been bought out by the management and moved to the Oxford Business Park, Cowley.

The remaining 150 former employees of TI Group at Lambourn House have taken redundancy, but a spokesman for Smiths Group said that all but 38 had now found new jobs.

Smiths Group offered jobs to some former employees at its London headquarters in Finchley or at subsidiary offices in Cheltenham and Witney.

Smiths announced that the automotive division of TI Group was up for sale at the time of the merger and TI Automotive has emerged as a separate company.

TI Automotive, which employs 20,000 people worldwide, is the world's leading supplier of fuel and brake systems and air-conditioning equipment for the motor industry. Its UK factories are in Telford, Washington, and Deeside.

It is now owned by former TI shareholders (55 per cent), the management team (25 per cent) and Smiths, which has kept 19.9 per cent.