Town reels after second jobs axe

Jan 31 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

MANUFACTURER Black and Decker has revealed plans to cut 169 jobs at its North-East factory to save nearly a third of its labour costs.

Black and Decker’s decision to shed the jobs at its Spennymoor factory will leave it with a workforce of around 150, just one-tenth of the 1,500 that were employed five years ago, and has raised fears for the jobs of the remaining staff.

And it is the latest jobs blow to hit the County Durham town after Electrolux announced it was closing its factory, shedding 500 jobs, in December last year.

A Black and Decker spokesman said: “Ongoing cost pressures, a competitive environment and reductions in residential construction activity have lead to a reappraisal of the company’s global manufacturing footprint.

“Operations in Spennymoor have contracted over the past few years and opportunity exists to consolidate the existing operations within other larger facilities that are more sustainable in the long-term.”

The jobs will be shed across the company’s operations which include manufacturing finance, sourcing and human resources. The company’s European design centre will continue to operate from Spennymoor.

The factory, on the town’s Green Lane Industrial Estate, once employed more than 1,500 people making power tools and other related products.

In 2003 1,000 jobs were lost after production was shifted to the Czech Republic in a bid to reduce costs.

Alan Hall of the Engineering Employers Federation in the North-East says companies shifting production to Eastern Europe are looking for labour cost savings of up to 30%, and this will increase in Asian countries.

Durham county councillor Neil Foster of Spennymoor said: “This is a terrible blow fro the town, especially on the back of the Electrolux announcement.”

Ian Williams, One NorthEast director of business and industry, said: “The news that Black and Decker is reviewing its manufacturing operation at Spennymoor is very disappointing, especially coming so soon after the Electrolux announcement.

“One NorthEast will meet with company senior management as soon as possible to learn more about their plans for the Spennymoor business. The workers and their future prospects are our primary concern.”

Stewart Watkins, County Durham Development Company managing director, said: “This is not a major surprise when you consider that Black and Decker has already considerably downsized its operations in Spennymoor, despite the best efforts of workforce and management to keep it viable.

“However, following so hard on the heels of Electrolux’s announced closure, this is a major blow to the town.”

One employee said: “It has been like an axe hanging over our heads for years, but people are still shocked. It is going to devastate the local area, especially with Electrolux closing down as well.”

The Spennymoor manufacturing facility opened in 1965 and the design centre was established in 1974. Managers at the Black and Decker site, which does not have union recognition, have begun a 90-day consultation period with workers.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Spennymoor job losses

1980s Courtaulds closes with the loss of 2,000 jobs

1996 Rothmans closes with the loss of 700 jobs

1997 Electrolux refrigeration factory closes with the loss of 650 jobs

2003 950 jobs lost at Black and Decker, work transferred to Czech Republic

2007 Electrolux announces closure of cooker factory with loss of 500 jobs to Poland

Jan 30, 2008: A further 169 jobs to go at Black and Decker.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

'Spennymoor is a very resilient place'

SPENNYMOOR will be known to many as the home of Bobby Shafto but it is now developing a different reputation after a raft of recent job losses.

Like most County Durham towns and villages, its origins are based on coal with many mines being sunk in the area to fuel the industrial revolution in the 19th Century – including the main one at Whitworth – and the population quickly rose to its present day level of around 20,000.

During the Second World War, the Royal Ordnance Factory made bullets for the forces and when this closed it was taken over by Thorn Lighting – which is now the town’s largest employer with 700 workers.

As the coal mines closed, attempts were made to attract new industries and the town witnessed the arrival of a number of major employers, including Courtaulds, Rothmans, Black and Decker and Electrolux.

Out of these, there is now just the rump of Black and Decker left.

Durham county councillor Neil Foster, of Spennymoor, said: “My father Fred was a miner and when the pit closed, he got a job at Courtaulds.

“In Spennymoor, you would normally find families would all work in the same factory, so when one of these closed, it would often mean grandparents, parents and children would be out of work.”

Despite losing thousands of jobs, unemployment levels in the town are in line with the average across the rest of the North-East of around 6%. Coun Foster said: “The factories would draw in people from outside the town, the outlying villages of south west Durham, and from as far afield as Wingate and Peterlee in east Durham.”

In recent years, Spennymoor has witnessed a housebuilding boom.

Coun Foster added: “Spennymoor is a very resilient town. People have picked themselves up after losing the big employers in the past and they will do so again.

“It is still an attractive place to live. Many of the young people who stay in the town will travel to Durham and Darlington to work and it’s still not too far a commute to get to Tyneside. We have good bus and road links.”

Ben Ord, 66, a Sedgefield district councillor, of Farndale, Spennymoor, said: “People are having to travel longer distances from Spennymoor to find work.

“I know of several who have taken jobs on Tyneside and drive into work every day.

“Spennymoor is in danger of becoming a commuter town, yet at one time there was an abundance of good, local jobs.

“If it becomes somewhere to live but not to work, then it will lose its heart and soul.

“Already local people are having to move to different parts of the country to find jobs.

“But if British firms pay their workers £7 an hour and Eastern European firms pay £3 an hour, jobs are going to disappear from the North- East.”