Irish bathrooms firm to cut 70 jobs
Irish bathrooms firm Qualceram Shires is to axe between 60 and 70 jobs at two of its UK manufacturing sites.
The jobs are to be cut at its Shire Bathrooms and Trent Bathrooms ceramics factories in Stoke-on-Trent.
Last October, the group cut 80 jobs in the UK, the majority of them within its acrylic manufacturing plant and at the Bradford head office of Shires, which it has been integrating since its acquisition in September.
No timeframe has been outlined for the latest cuts to take place, but discussions have begun between management and employee representatives.
The Shires Bathrooms plant is the group's largest manufacturing facility producing vitreous china products, employing some 218 staff.
Qualceram's Trent Bathrooms site, in Hanley, employs 246 staff and is its second vitreous china factory.
John O'Loughlin, Qualceram's chief executive, says: "Our prime objective is to increase productivity in all plants and achieve optimum efficiency, and this will be done by a mixture of redundancy and increased production."
Qualceram Shires is based in Arklow, Co Wicklow, Ireland.
