Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Some 192 bathroom industry jobs may be lost with the closure of the Ours Sanitaryware and Impulse Bathrooms operation at Middlewich in Cheshire.
Parent company HKRI in Hong Kong decided on the action following a serious downturn in one of its core markets in Australia. HKRI concluded that the UK busineses would not be able to achieve the target sales volumes and would place an “unacceptable level of funding on HKR International going forward”.
The business has not been placed into liquidation or into administration and production to complete existing orders will continue in the short term. The workforce was told at lunchtime yesterday (October 7).
Some external parties have expressed an interest in acquiring the business and negotiations are on-going.
The Middlewich operation is a former Ideal Standard factory, closed in January 2011 when the bathroom manufacturer slashed 20% of its workforce, blaming worsening economic conditions in the market.
The site was acquired by HKRI’s Imperial Bathrooms subsidiary in October 2011.
