Brick firm axes half of staff

Half the workforce at the historic Baggeridge Brick factory at Sedgley are to be axed in a shock move by the company’s new owners.

Staff were told this morning that 24 of the 50-strong workforce will lose their jobs when work is transferred to the company’s Kingsbury plant, near Tamworth, in May.

Another 13 jobs are to go at Tamworth because of changes in the factory there. No jobs will be affected at its plant in Kidderminster.

Baggeridge was bought in a £100 million deal by Austrian brick giant Wienerberger last year.

Today’s job losses come just two months after Wienerberger announced it was closing the Baggeridge offices next to the plant, with the loss of 40 jobs.

The office operations were transferred to Wienerberger’s UK headquarters in Manchester.

Today, Wienerberger’s UK operations director Pat Furr blamed the move on wildly fluctuating energy costs at Sedgley.

The company is also suffering from a slump in demand for bricks as part of the slowdown in the housing market.

Sedgley – the first Baggeridge brick plant built when the firm was launched in 1936 – is losing the production of its famous “blue” bricks.

Mr Furr said today the bricks could be made using half the energy at Kingsbury, which has more efficient kilns.

One shopfloor worker at Sedgley said today: “We are all absolutely gobsmacked. We had no idea this was in the wind.”