North Wales jobs at risk as proposed relocation blamed on drift south

A global firm is looking to scale back operations at a North Wales factory - putting 50 jobs at risk. Coat hanger firm Mainetti moved to the former Tetra Pak site in Wrexham in 2014 after a fire destroyed a previous site in Flintshire - with 300 roles involved at that point.

But they have now told the staff that the reuse side of the business at is no longer viable at the site. The reason they say is that its customer base in England is increasingly moving further south - with few having distribution locations above the M1/M6 Junction.

They said that combined with increased transport costs as fuel prices have spiked that using Wrexham as a base was "no longer an option". They said it affects 50 staff. It added that it was not closing the entire site at Wrexham.

READ MORE: 'Wales' oldest shop' still going strong after nearly 500 years

READ MORE: All the locations of mobile speed cameras across North Wales for May

The Mainetti UK Managing Director told staff: "The business continues to see significant decreases in volume returning to the Wrexham reuse facility. Compounding this the continual increase in operating costs it is no longer viable to operate in Wrexham.

"We will continue to service our customers by returning the reuse hangers back into the supply chain through our global network. The company has seen our customer base steadily move further south in the UK with very few of our customers having Distribution locations above the M1/M6 Junction.

"In the last twelve months there have been significant increases in our transport costs. Hauling goods from a southern location back to Wrexham is no longer an option to us. The announcement means that we are scaling back our operations at Wrexham and moving to a smaller site near Rugby.

"This is much closer to our customer base allowing us to service our customer more effectively. A 30-day redundancy consultation period began at the end of April. Approximately 50 employees are affected."

Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox