A FIRM has been put up for auction by its American owners -- and the first staff heard about it was when they read about it in a newspaper.

Workers at Anker, which has a price tag of £100 million, have critised the management for not keeping them informed.

They read a report in The Times on Thursday which said the cash register makers, based at the Wingates Industrial Park, Westhoughton, was being sold by owner Gores, the Los Angeles technology investment firm that acquired the company in February of last year.

Anker, which supplies cash registers to retailers including Harrods, Burger King and Tesco, denies keeping its 320-strong workforce in the dark.

But a worker at the company said: "It's disgusting to find out this way. The company must have known well in advance. When were they planning to tell us?"

Workers saw the newspaper article on Thursday morning, but had to wait until 4.30pm that day before having it confirmed in a statement from chief executive John Foulkes, which was circulated by email.

The email said: "Last year's sales revenues exceeded £100 million and we are operating as a solid and profitable organisation. Not surprisingly therefore, but perhaps sooner than Gores had anticipated, there has been interest shown in Anker as a possible acquisition target from other organisations actively involved in the retail sector."

UBS, the investment bank managing the auction of the firm, has sent a sales memorandum to potential bidders and offers are invited by the end of October.

A spokesman for Anker said: "There was never any intention whatsoever to keep this news from the staff. That is not the way we work.

"The article was the result of a leak which did not come from any management here. As soon as we found out about it, we took steps to communicate the news as fully and professionally as we could."

Managing director Doug Hargreaves said it was business as usual and reassured workers that no jobs would be lost.

Anker was founded in 1876 in Germany but is now based in Westhoughton. It provides tills and barcode scanners, as well as stock-monitoring software.

The company has 1,300 staff in 11 countries and is led by Mr Foulkes, the chief executive. It is expected to generate about £12 million of profits on about £100 million in revenues this year.

Anker is a former subsidiary of BTR, the engineering firm that merged with Siebe in 1999 to form Invensys. BTR sold the business in 1995 to European Acquisition Capital, the UK venture capital firm.

Four years later, Anker bought Riva, the retail software and systems company, for £42 million. In the same year, Anker acquired the German and British units of Omron, a rival firm.

Gores' other investments include Voicecom, a telecoms software firm based in Atlanta, Georgia, and Proxicom, a New York internet software company.

Anker has offices in the UK and several European capitals and also distributes its products in Africa and the Middle East.

The company, which counts Carrefour, the French supermarket, and Aldi Group, the retailer, as customers, has installed about 700,000 systems in the retail, food service and hospitality industries.

The document continmues: "As a result of this, I would like to make you aware that that you may hear of activities that could potentially lead to a change of ownership for Anker Systems."

Anker is an open, pleasant place to work, and we have excellent relations between management and staff. We would never keep them in the dark.