Royal Worcester and Spode
Limited - Job losses.
The company has confirmed that there will be 250 job
losses - with effect from the
1st June 2007.
About 400 people are employed at the historic Church Street site. 15-20
employees
will remain as the sole manufacturing facility, and will continue to produce the
hand
decorated prestige ware.
The visitors centre, museum, and retailing will also remain at this site - along
with
sales, marketing, and design.
It is unclear at the moment what proportion of manufacturing will be carried out
overseas, but it is expected to be more than 75%
The reminder of the staff retained in employment by Spode will be warehousing
and
distribution. The company had already relocated this part of the business
to the Lymedale Industrial Estate in Newcastle under Lyme, where they have
recently
commissioned a second warehouse to be built.
Unity full time officers along with on-site representative John Thompson have
held a
series of meetings with our members. The Ceramic Resource Centre will be
seeing
everyone affected during the coming months to discuss retraining and help
with interview
techniques and the preparation of CVs etc.
