MANUFACTURING in Kendal was dealt another serious blow this week with the news that long-established carpet firm Goodacres would move all its production to Poland resulting in the loss of 39 jobs, reports Caroline Beamish.
The firm, which has been producing high quality carpets in the town since 1863, confirmed its traditional, Herdwick and Lakeland ranges would all be transferred to the factory of southern Polish Axminster carpet company Fabryka Dywanow Kowary, to cut currently unviable manufacturing costs.
Mike Cornish, Chief Executive of Goodacre Carpets, expressed regret at the decision to cut the production jobs in winding, setting, weaving and finishing, but denied the move meant the products, including the Herdwick range endorsed by The National Trust, would lose its local identity.
He said it would help secure the firm's position as a leading manufacturer of high quality carpets for the UK and overseas market, albeit from an off-shore production base, and, crucially, help safeguard the remaining 37 jobs in this country.
"Emotionally, there is the inevitable sadness that we cannot continue to manufacture carpet here but, realistically, the product is of the same high quality produced with the same technology," he said.
"However it's cheaper by a country mile around one fifth of the costs here and we are confident we have made the decision to transfer production to our joint venture in Poland early enough.
"If we'd tried to soldier on until next year it could have put the business as a whole at risk."
Production of samples, design, warehousing and distribution roles will all remain at the Kendal firm, which employed 210 people at its height.
David Townsend, Herdwick project officer for The National Trust, this week expressed disappointment at news of jobs being lost at the firm with which it was working in partnership to promote the Herdwick range. But he said that while the trust acknowledged it was a sad day for the manufacturing industry in Kendal' the aim of the agreement to give Cumbrian farmers a fair price for their wool - would remain the same.
The announcement prompted concern from Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Farron, however, who said he had been given assurances from Goodacre Carpets that there would be no further job cuts in talks following earlier redundancies in May.
"They were supposed to put the company on a firm footing for the future. I am extremely concerned at the latest announcement and will be contacting the company again to find out what has changed."
Goodacre Carpets' six-and-a-half acre site, off Aynam Road, now holds the key to unlocking new employment in the town, Mealbank Properties, the Kendal-based firm which facilitated a management buyout of Goodacre in 2002, claimed this week.
Mealbank director Lucien Procter said the space vacated by Goodacre Carpets would make way for 25 to 30 commercial units.
"Our aim was to utilise the whole site for carpet manufacturing," he said.
"We have done all we can and feel very bad to have to lose such very good people, but we really have no choice.
"Goodacre Carpets will still occupy the largest proportion of the site, and we hope to develop around 80,000 square feet of covered space into industrial units, which is likely to create more jobs than are currently in existence on the site."
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