Bottle top site to shut

A landmark West Bromwich company that makes bottle tops for the drinks industry across the world is to close after 70 years in the town, with the loss of 120 jobs.

Metal Closures, in Bromford Lane, which in its heyday employed 1,000, is to move its operation to a sister factory in Scotland. Sixty staff will be offered the chance to transfer.

The firm today confirmed it was proposing to shut the West Bromwich site by the end of the year. Consultation meetings with the workforce began yesterday.

Metal Closures, which makes bottle tops for the wine, spirits and drinks industry including Absolut vodka and Teachers whisky, was taken over in 2000 by Kalos s.p.a. – a holding company of Alucapvit which has plants in Italy, Spain, Poland and Scotland. The workforce was then 200.

The merger was seen as good news, creating the strongest aluminium closure group in Europe. But turnover fell and jobs were cut.

George Woods, the company's human resources consultant, said: "Although we have invested a lot of money in the business, the company has continued to sustain serious losses.

"It is very sad, particularly as we have such a long-standing workforce, with some people having worked at the factory all their lives."

He added: "One of the proposals is to offer 60 people the chance to transfer to Scotland because of their valuable skills and experience. We recognise Glasgow is 300 miles from West Bromwich but we hope some will take the opportunity."

Metal Closures produces over a billion bottle tops a year, capping famous brand names like Famous Grouse and Tia Maria.

One worker, who did not want to be named, said: "We're devastated. Things were a bit dodgy a couple of years ago but it was believed we'd got over that. None of us saw this coming."