Express & Star

More jobs to go as Brintons moves carpet dyeing process overseas

More jobs are going at firms in the West Midlands as companies take steps to reorganise their manufacturing operations in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

Published
Yarn at Brintons in Kidderminster

Brintons Carpets has announced plans to stop dyeing yarn at its manufacturing site in Stourport Road, Kidderminster, and move the process overseas.

Automotive supply business Autoneum, which has a plant in Halesowen, is also set to make some of its staff redundant due to the impact of the crisis on the automotive industry.

Brintons, which has been in the town since 1783, is entering into a consultation period with production and engineering employees to scale down operations at Kidderminster, with around 25 full-time workers losing their jobs.

The move comes just weeks after it emerged it was closing its Telford factory after more than 50 years of operating, with 72 furloughed employees expected to be made redundant.

Rob Greenfield, group manufacturing and logistics director said: “The global Coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on hospitality demand and we have to face the reality that as a result we need to consolidate our manufacturing operations."

He added that the proposed changes would ensure Brintons continues to safeguard the company’s longer term interests.

"Kidderminster will continue to operate warehousing and distribution of residential carpet to our retail partners and also retains the group’s head office," said Mr Greenfield.

Swiss group Autoneum has three sites in the UK with 100 employed at Keller House, Hereward Rise, and 140 at its manufacturing site in Stoke-on-Trent. The third site is at Heckmondwike,Yorkshire.

It makes in-vehicle acoustic and thermal insulation and customers include Jaguar Land Rover and Toyota.

Autoneum said the the number of potential redundancies at Halesowen and Stoke was in the “low double-digit region”.

It says it needs to realign its activities and workforce in response to the impact of the pandemic on the industry.

It is not proposing to close any of the UK sites at this time.

“As a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, the automotive industry and Autoneum as a supplier to all major vehicle manufacturers are facing a significant, unprecedented market decline and production levels that are forecasted to remain low in the coming years.

“Autoneum has to realign its activities and workforce to this new market reality. We have unfortunately had to announce some potential redundancies at all three of our sites in the UK," the company said in a statement.

Last months Brintons confirmed that its Telford factory was closing down after more than 50 years. It had delaying the move to shut the yarn-spinning plant before lockdown.

At the time a total of 72 employees based at the site, in Harcourt, Halesfield, were put on furlough.

They were being paid their full redundancy award at the end of June.

Bosses had announced last autumn that the site was closing to allow it to “consolidate processes into its European plants”.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.