297 staff will go in early 2009
Sealine have announced plans to reduce production and lay off 297 staff.
They say: “As economic conditions worldwide continue to worsen and are unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, Sealine is planning for a leisure marine market that will be smaller in the near and medium term and will be scaling production output accordingly.”
From early 2009, the company will merge their three sites at Kidderminster, Hartlebury and Burntwood, into one facility at Sealine’s main site in Kidderminster.
This will result in a reduction of the total workforce by 297, affecting both production and office-based staff.
It comes after Sealine’s parent company Brunswick announced the closure of four plants and 1,400 job losses amid plummeting boat sales stateside.
UK manufacturer Fairline also announced the loss of 90 jobs earlier this month.
Sealine’s Managing Director Steve Coultate stated: “It is with great regret that we are planning these changes, but they are necessary given the current leisure marine market conditions and economic environment.
“We need to take action to protect the long-term prospects of both our company and our international dealer network.
“The actions we are taking will leave us well positioned to respond to a market upturn, when it comes.
“We will seek to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies by inviting applications for voluntary redundancies and for all of those employees affected we will be providing a full consultation and counselling programme.”
