Teesside plant escapes cuts
TEESSIDE escaped the jobs cull today as chemical giant Croda said it was closing one of its UK plants.
The firm said it was closing its Bromborough manufacturing site with the loss of around 115 jobs.
Croda brought Uniqema, which makes ingredients for products ranging from lipsticks to paints, from ICI in September 2006 in a £410m deal - which included the Teesside operation.
Today the company said it expected the weakness in commodity and industrial markets to continue over the coming months.
The news came as the company reported a first-quarter trading update.
Pre-tax profits from continuing operations for the three months to March 31 were £21.7m - down by 9.6% on the same period last year.
The sale of Uniqema marked the end of ICI’s manufacturing operations on Teesside. In its heyday ICI employed 30,000.
“I am pleased to report first-quarter profits in line with expectations,” said Martin Flower, chairman of Croda International. “Despite the difficult economic climate, the core Consumer Care business produced record revenues and profits.
“As expected, weaker demand in Industrial Specialities has continued since the year end, with sales down 19.7% to £97.1m. We expect the weakness in commodity and industrial markets to continue over the coming months but also anticipate continues sales growth in Consumer Care and this, allied to ongoing cost savings and favourable raw material pricing in some sectors, gives us continued confidence that we will make further progress in 2009.”
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