A INTERNATIONAL firm is to close its manufacturing plant in Bradford, with up to 165 jobs affected.
Royal Sanders, which manufacturers personal care products, has announced it is transferring all its business to its Preston plant.
A total of 165 workers are affected by the move, and although staff have been offered the chance to relocate, it is not expected that many will do so.
As a result a large number of the 165 staff are expected to be made redundant.
Royal Sanders, which has operations in The Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the UK, confirmed to the Telegraph & Argus that the first stage of consultation had already taken place, and they were currently undergoing the second stage.
At this point it is likely to be six months before the Rook Lane plant closes down and everything is transferred to the company’s other UK manufacturing centre.
The Bradford factory at Dudley Hill was known as McBride until late last year, when Royal Sanders took over the firm.
A spokesman for Royal Sanders told the T&A: “Royal Sanders is closing the Bradford site and there are 165 people involved.
“We have carried out a consultation session of 45 days among the employees to see if there is an alternative to closing the site, and the outcome was that the site couldn’t remain competitive.
“We are now entering the second stage of consultation.
“It is expected that the site will close in around six months from now.”
He added that some workers could be redeployed in Preston, but a number of redundancies were expected.
Local councillor Alan Wainwright said he was disappointed by the move and that jobs would be lost to the area.
“I am very disappointed to hear that a company like McBride, now Royal Sanders, which has been in this area for a long time, has decided to leave.
“I am hopeful that Bradford Council, which can help relet buildings to firms looking to move into the area, will be able to help, and that the site won’t be vacant for long.”
One worker told the T&A that people feel very let down and that morale is at an all time low.
“When they purchased the site in November last year, they said they would be a few redundancies but after that the site would go from strength to strength. We made 25 people redundant in February and thought that was that.
“Now we have been told that the work will get split between the Preston and Holland sites and that’s because they don’t pay shift pay so labour will be cheaper and more profits will be made as our site is too expensive, which surely they knew that when they bought it from McBride.
“People are still in limbo as we have been told we must work our three months notice once we have been given notice of redundancy, and nobody knows when this will happen.”
The T&A reported last year that McBride was selling its European personal care liquids business for £12.5 million to rival firm Royal Sanders.
The business comprised manufacturing sites in Dudley Hill, Bradford, and also in Belgium, and supplied personal hygiene, haircare and oral care products.
