The Argenton-based manufacturer of underground mining equipment sacked 24 workshop employees and 13 office staff yesterday, leaving about 80 employees all up.

The retrenchments were announced by chief executive Christoph Schroeder, who was brought in by Waratah's new owner, Poland's Kopex Group.

Kopex bought Waratah last year for an estimated $3 million after its previous directors put the company into voluntary administration with debts of more than $20 million.

Administrators KordaMentha cut more than 20 jobs in August.

Mr Schroeder said yesterday that he hoped the smaller workforce would help Waratah break even in the coming year.

"When we went through the books it became evident that sales this year would only be about half of what had been claimed," Mr Schroeder said.

He said the global mining boom meant Waratah should be thriving but the company failed to secure sales because of the uncertainty created by its financial difficulties.

"We see this as drawing a line under things and we now want to say to the mining industry that we are ready build more mining cars and to have the industry regain confidence in our products," he said.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union organiser Daniel Wallace said the union had worked to ensure Kopex paid out the full $800,000 in entitlements owed to the 37 retrenched workers.

"It's disappointing but everyone here has known for a while that things were worse than they looked when Kopex bought the company from the administrators," Mr Wallace said.