The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Wales; West Wales and The Valleys; Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot
Location of affected unit(s)
Maesteg
Sector
Manufacturing Manufacture For Transport Equipment Manufacture Of Motor Vehicles, Trailers And Semi-Trailers 29.3 - Manufacture of parts and accessories for motor vehicles
New offshoring locations
France, Poland
246 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
30 September 2006
Employment effect (start)
Foreseen end date
1 December 2007
Description
Cooper Standard Automotives, a firm that procudes parts for cars, has announced that it is to close its Maesteg plant with the loss of 246 jobs. The firm will close its plant by December 2007, transferring the work to France and Poland, according to Bridgend Council. In a statement, the council said it understood the reason for the planned closure was reduced customer demand. The council and the Welsh Assembly Government said they were 'disappointed' to learn of the closure. Bridgend Council leader, Councillor Cheryl Green, said: 'This is sad news for the employees and their families.' 'Basically jobs are being moved elsewhere in Europe and this is happening unfortunately all over now,' she added. 'This is just the last in a series of manufacturing jobs that have been lost in the Bridgend area over the last number of years.' The council said 246 employees would be affected by the closure. The company once employed 600 people but has been scaling down for the past 18 months. The plant is in a division of the global company manufacturing weather seals for car windows and doors. Bridgend councillor William Teesdale, whose Maesteg West ward includes the factory, said: 'It's quite a blow. It's a lot of jobs going in a town of this size. We need support in Maesteg badly to recover from this sort of position. These are jobs that people don't have to travel for.'
Sources
30 September 2006: BBC News
Citation
Eurofound (2006), Cooper Standard Automotive, Offshoring/Delocalisation in United Kingdom, factsheet number 64164, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/64164.
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