Hanson announce job cuts and plant closures

Company shedding 250 jobs and closing 15 plants to match size of the business to prevailing market

HANSON UK have announced production cut-backs which will result in the loss of around 250 jobs across the country.

The company, part of Germany’s HeidelbergCement Group, says falling demand for its aggregates, cement, bricks and concrete is behind the proposals to reduce capacity by around 10% as the downturn in construction continues to affect trading. 

Hanson employ around 4,000 people at nearly 300 UK sites.

Chief executive officer Patrick O’Shea (pictured) said: ‘We anticipated some weakening in the market this year, but not on the scale we have experienced. More concerning is that 2013 is likely to be worse, with a further fall in construction output forecast.

‘Against that background, we must take steps to balance the size of our business to the prevailing market.’

In summary, the proposals under the restructure are:

Aggregates: Mothballing of Shardlow, Tytherington, and Sutton Courtenay quarries and closure of Hingston Down and South Molton concrete block works; production breaks during 2013 at a number of sites to match predicted demand; restructure of the operations and commercial management team under four area general managers.

Asphalt and contracting: Closure of Keepershield, Ystrad Meurig, St Ives and Tytherington asphalt plants; consolidation of the four areas in north and central into two, and a wind-down and closure of the civil engineering business.

Concrete: Closure of Perth, Minffordd, Blackpool, Stockport, Llantrisant and Tytherington plants; consolidation of the area management structure by combining north east and north/north, south west and south Wales and East Midlands and Suffolk.

Building products: Closure of Accrington brickworks and capacity reductions at Wilnecote; transfer of the brick and block distribution function to cement division at Ketton; staff reductions in support services.

Cement: Closure of Falkirk packed products depot and production cut-backs at Bulls Lodge; closure of the dry silo mortar business and transfer of the packed distribution function to cement division at Ketton.

Corporate and staff functions: Closure of Clifford House at Wetherby and consolidation of the customer service centre functions into Shepshed and Allington as part of a project to improve distribution and sales performance; a 20% reduction in spend for corporate functions, which will result in some job losses; combining the health and safety and environment teams into a new sustainability function.

According to Hanson, the hardest hit areas will be Penrith in Cumbria, where it is proposed to wind down the civil engineering business with the loss of around 45 jobs, and Wetherby in West Yorkshire, where the company’s customer service centre, which employs 34 staff, is to close by the end of March 2013.

Mr O’Shea said the proposals were regrettable, but critical to the future of the business. He added that job losses would be mitigated as far as possible by removing vacancies, offering alternative roles to staff and seeking volunteers for redundancy.

Relevant trade unions have been informed and consultation with affected staff has begun. Hanson say they hope to complete most of the restructuring process by the end of the year.

Mr O’Shea also announced a reshuffle in the senior management team, with Phil Redmond taking over the aggregates division and Brian Charleton assuming responsibility for asphalt and contracting with immediate effect.