Caravan firms announce potential loss of 360 jobs
HUNDREDS of jobs are set to be lost from Hull's caravan industry as two city firms fall victim to the credit crunch.
East Hull firm Cosalt Holiday Homes has announced the potential loss of about 280 workers due to a slump in the company's order books.
Atlas Holiday Homes, based in Wiltshire Road, west Hull, has also made about 80 cuts as sales of static caravans and holiday lodges decline.
Cosalt's parent company, Grimsby-based Cosalt Plc, announced it was selling the Hull caravan and lodge business in June this year.
According to a statement made by the company at the time, is was trading below expectations due to the economic climate and conditions specific to the caravan industry.
One Cosalt worker, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Mail the announcement of the sale had crippled confidence in the business leading to a further decline in orders.
He said: "People don't want to place orders because they don't know whether we will be here.
"There are no orders coming through and they don't expect any so there's no reason to keep staff on."
Senior GMB official Ken Vincent said unions had been called to a surprise meeting with the firm's managers last week to discuss the situation.
He said: "We were told the company didn't have any orders beyond October 31.
"We are in a three-month consultation, which means the last workers to leave will be on New Year's Eve."
Mr Vincent said the unions were due to meet with managers today to find out what is going on with the sale of the company.
The losses at Atlas come on the back of a separate announcement the factory will close between Friday, October 17 and Monday, November 3, during which workers will be unpaid.
Cosalt Plc refused to comment on the redundancies and no one from Atlas Holiday Homes was available.
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by cosalt worker (for now), hull
Friday, October 24 2008, 5:50PM
“7.30 monday 27th oct is when we all get told our future at cosalt.”
by mike, hull
Monday, October 20 2008, 10:27PM
“i have worked for swift caravans for 10 years, the company over the last three years is the worst it has ever been, we have had small lay offs but no were on the scale of the past year. we put it down to poor sales, and poor mangement. the company over the past 2 years had taken on over a hundred migrent workers, and flooded the work force, now over the past few months i have seen over 280 people lose there jobs,only 30 of which was migrant, by upper mangement very poor planing. they came fom plaxtons a bus manufacturer that was on the brink of bankrupt. when they left. now plaxtons have bult it self up. i can only hope they will not bring an important, job suppier like swift down before they learn from past mistakes..
if no one helps these caravan manufacturers hull will suffer, we are looking at nearly a thousand workers, not spending money, and hoping to claim benafits can hull survive ????”
by dave, cott, cottingham
Monday, October 20 2008, 9:54PM
“to put steve from east hull right, not everyone in the caravan indust earn big money, some of us earn just above min wage.
and swift caravans have had a big down turn in orders for the past two years. so tell me how can u put money away when for the past two years most of us have been paying our bills.
and now on a four day week and a week of every month.
and a horrible prospect of only working 1 to 2 weeks in dec.”
by Feeling sorry for the workers, Hull
Monday, October 20 2008, 12:33PM
“As I stated before, the management are idiots, rejects from decent companies like polypipe. Some right nasty pieces of work who deserve everything they get, while their replacements go from strength to strength, in all ways. Ha! It is a terrible shame for the ordinary workers that they have been run by these clowns.”
by Eltherington Industries, Hull
Wednesday, October 08 2008, 1:30PM
“We work at Eltherington Industries, suppliers to most of the Hull caravan industry and are obviously in the same position as everyone else at the moment. We have been supplying Cosalt for many years and we have already had a first band of redundancies. We are all now on 30 days notice of redundancy meaning between 20 and 100 further redundancies, leaving only 50% of our current workforce. None of us currently know who exactly is going which obviously leads to many sleepless nights and daytime speculation. This is unfortunately the state of all caravan manufacturers/suppliers currently and not just localised to Cosalt and Atlas. We can only hope this current drought does not continue for too long and the market starts to pick up sooner rather than later.”