Workers must take holiday

Soaring energy bills and the lowest demand for building materials in 50 years is forcing brick-maker Baggeridge Brick to shut for up to three weeks this Christmas.

The move affects around 575 staff at Baggeridge's plants in Sedgley, Hartlebury and Waresley near Kidderminster, Kingsbury in Tamworth and Rudgwick, West Sussex.

They will all be given holiday pay over the two to three week shutdown over Christmas and the New Year.

Normally the company only closes for three days, but last year introduced the longer closure because of fuel costs.

Unveiling a slump in its annual pre-tax profits of more than a third - down to £3.41 million from £5.21 million last year - Baggeridge bosses said gas had cost it an extra £3 million.

At the same time the falling UK market for bricks had hit a 50-year low.

The company has also been hit by the costs of a organising an £89.2 million takeover by Austrian brick giant Wienerberger.

In return for substantial capital investment for Baggeridge, the Austrians would gain access to the Black Country company's extensive stock of building materials.

This is expected to take several more months than expected after the Office of Fair Trading announced on Monday that the deal was being referred to the Competition Commission.

Without the takeover costs and soaring gas prices, Baggeridge bosses believe they would have made a profit topping last year's figure, as the company managed to achieve an 8.3 per cent hike in revenue to £54.95 million.

Meanwhile Baggeridge has finalised plans to build a new factory at Warstone, near Cannock, using high quality local clay said to be among the best in the world for building materials.

If the plans go ahead, the factory would create around 30 jobs for 30 years. It would be capable of turning out bricks as well as clay.

By Simon Penfold