Jobs under threat as Maltby firm closes

Huddersfield-based firm Marshalls has announced plans to close its site in the area by the end of the year because of a worse-than-feared slump in the building industry.

The company said up to 50 staff would be affected but it hoped to limit cuts by redeploying staff elsewhere within the business or with other local employers.

The firm is also consulting over cuts across the wider business.

Marshalls said it was looking at a ‘small percentage’ of losses among its 2,300 employees.

Details of the plant closure came as Marshalls reported a 38 per cent plunge in half-year pre-tax profits to £7.6 million from £12.2 million for the same period last year, when record rainfall led to a sales hit as DIY projects were put on hold.

Marshalls said that while the weather has since improved, the outlook for the construction sector had deteriorated.

The firm’s chief executive Graham Holden said cost-cutting efforts would help the group weather the bleak economic conditions.

He hopes to limit job cuts by redeploying affected staff elsewhere in the business or with other local employers.

Marshalls said that while operations were being shut down at Maltby it would retain the site in the hope of reactivating works when trading conditions improve.

The Maltby plant was bought by Marshalls in 1969 and is one of 12 concrete manufacturing sites owned by the group.

The group said that cost-cutting efforts so far had helped improve trading margins, which were up by one per cent since the first half.

Its cost cutting plans aim to boost profits by £7 million a year, according to the group.

It said it was also looking to expand its international business to offset the domestic economic problems.

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