Tata Chemicals Europe (Tata Chemicals Europe ) has today confirmed that it will proceed with the proposed restructuring of its soda ash and sodium bicarbonate business in Northwich, Cheshire.
The restructuring, which is necessitated by high energy costs, will see the closure of Winnington soda ash and calcium chloride plants and a loss of 220 jobs. However, it will secure the future of Tata Chemicals Europe ’s remaining soda ash and sodium bicarbonate manufacturing business and around 250 direct jobs and many more associated jobs in Cheshire and the wider regional economy. It is anticipated that closure will happen during the first Quarter of 2014.
Since the announcement of the proposal, the Company has worked positively with its stakeholders, including its employees, GMB and Unite trades unions, Cheshire West and Chester Council, the UK Government and its shareholder to address its long term energy challenges and promote the future growth of its business in Northwich.
Managing Director, Dr Martin Ashcroft commented: “We commend the unions and our employees in particular for playing a vital and constructive role in helping to develop a sustainable future, which will be focussed on growth. “As a result, we expect to be able to restrict the number of compulsory redundancies to 75 through redeployment and voluntary redundancies and Tata Chemicals Europe will be providing a significantly enhanced redundancy package and a comprehensive outplacement programme to assist employees leaving the business,” added Dr Ashcroft.
Tata Chemicals Europe continues to work closely with the UK Government, which understands the Company’s energy challenges. It is crucial to Tata Chemicals Europe that the Government continues to engage with it to address these vital energy concerns in order to support the future growth of the company.
“The energy challenge which Tata Chemicals Europe has faced is an example of how the state of European energy markets seriously threatens the ability of energy intensive manufacturing companies to compete on the world stage. All stakeholders need to work hard to address these challenges to avoid further damage to the manufacturing base,” commented Dr Ashcroft.
Despite benefitting from a clean, efficient world-class combined heat and power plant, which has removed four million tonnes of carbon from Tata Chemicals Europe ’s processes over the last 13 years, and despite efforts to develop a Sustainable Energy Plant at Lostock, Tata Chemicals Europe has been unable to mitigate sufficiently the serious impact of the energy costs on its business.
“There is real regret that Tata Chemicals Europe will have to bring to an end a long history of soda ash production at the Winnington site, but energy costs have overwhelmed the viability of these plants. Restructuring the company will provide a sustainable presence in Northwich,” added Dr Ashcroft. “Thanks to the backing of many stakeholders, our employees and the shareholder, Tata Chemicals Europe now looks to the future opportunity to grow our business in existing and new markets and to secure our presence in Northwich for the long term.”
Editors’ notes
- Tata Chemicals Europe (Tata Chemicals Europe ) is the UK’s sole manufacturer and supplier of soda ash and sodium bicarbonate.
- Tata Chemicals Europe operates from three sites in Cheshire: Winnington (Northwich), Lostock (Northwich) and Middlewich.
- Formerly known as Brunner, Mond and Company, it was originally founded in 1873 and was a major constituent of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) when it formed in 1926. It was divested from ICI in 1991 and was acquired by Tata Chemicals in 2006.
- Tata Chemicals Europe is wholly owned by Tata Chemicals, a global chemicals company headquartered in Mumbai, India.
- Tata Chemicals Europe is also the UKs leading manufacturer and supplier of salt, operating from Middlewich, Cheshire. The salt business is not impacted by today’s announcement.
For further information, please contact Stephen Bray (sbray@tatachemicals.com / 01606 724855 / 07720 497161).