Hundreds of Ford employees in Geelong and Broadmeadows will be stood down from tomorrow, after a key parts supplier was put into administration.

Campbellfield-based CMI has been in dispute with its landlord for weeks and its staff were locked out last week.

CMI’s receiver says it needs to stabilise its operations and assess its finances, before attempting to find a buyer.

But it says it’s impossible to say yet how long that process may take.

Ford says production will cease at the close of business today and will not resume until at least the middle of next week.

The company has tried to minimise the impact on its 1800 workers in Geelong and Broadmeadows by bringing forward rostered days off and down days, and allowing staff to top up lost salary with annual leave.

Even after production resumes at CMI it’s expected to take several days for supplies to begin to flow to Ford again.

Federal Workplace Relations Minister BILL SHORTEN says the government is reasonably confident CMI can be saved, but he warned the business is not out of the woods yet.

Ford says at this stage its employees are due to return to work next Wednesday.