Bradford firm Safestyle UK is making redundancies at its headquarters in the city, the Telegraph & Argus can reveal.
The PVCu windows and doors firm has confirmed it intends to make 13 positions redundant in order processing and customer service at its Manningham base.
Around 40 members of staff are involved in the current consultation which is expected to be completed by the end of May.
CEO Rob Neale told the T&A that they were asking anyone interested in voluntary redundancy to come forward and that there were also vacancies in other roles in Bradford that could be suitable for some of the affected workers.
It was purely a response to the fact that the market is tougher, he added.
He said: “We are growing our market share in a declining market. But the market has contracted a little this year, and therefore we are having to respond to manage our cost base with the size of the business that we are able to generate.”
Mr Neale said they were “winning in a more challenging market” and were heading towards being back in the black next year after the losses of last year.
He added that it was the firm’s annual general meeting later this week, when a trading update would be issued.
He said: “The timing of the redundancies isn’t a reaction to the fact that we’re doing worse. It’s just part of what we were going to have to do given the market expectation was down.
“We are still in line with that guidance and our forecast is that we will be back to profitability this year.”
In March the T&A reported how Safestyle had suffered a loss after a “challenging year” and “unforeseeable” issues over the 2022 financial year.
The reported loss before taxation for the retailer and manufacturer was £8.5 million. This compares to a £6m profit the previous year.
Safestyle said its underlying reduction in profit was due to the estimated £4m impact of a cyber-attack in the first quarter of the year and its £5m strategic investment programme.
The company said at the time that its order intake for the year to date had been variable and the “trading context of the UK economy and consumer confidence remains challenging”.
