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Carcraft's Castleton base
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Jobs lost as Carcraft cuts back
Damon Wilkinson7/12/2007
MORE than 20 staff at Carcraft’s Castleton headquarters have been made redundant as part of the company’s restructuring programme.
The firm is blaming the job losses on a lack of suitable premises in Rochdale to expand its operations. A total of 21 jobs, mainly in the valeting and workshop departments at Nixon Street have been axed.
It is believes the site will remain as a car showroom.
As the Observer reported last month, 49 redundancies were initially announced from the 400-strong workforce, but this number has been reduced after some staff agreed to transfer to other sites.
An employee who lost his job said: “It has been a nightmare. They have changed the whole company again and left us in the dark about it. A similar thing happened just before Christmas last year and now they have done it again.”
A statement released by Carcraft said Rochdale had been chosen as a test base for one of the company’s new service centres. It added: “The company initially announced that 49 jobs were at risk at its Rochdale site due to a lack of suitable premises in the area for one of its centralised vehicle preparation centres. Following extensive consultation the majority of affected staff have been able to relocate to other sites in the region.”
Last month Carcraft finance director Tony Hinkley said the cuts were in part because the company had been refused permission to expand its operations to the Kingsway Business Park.
John Hudson, chief executive of Rochdale Development Agency, the organisation behind Kingsway, said: “We are disappointed Carcraft made the decision to make staff redundant as we have been working with them since 2005 to explore options for expansion and relocation within the borough.
“The development of a comprehensive Carcraft scheme on Kingsway was considered but there are planning and legal restrictions, which prevented such a large car showroom on this development.”
Carcraft was founded by Frank McKee in 1961 and began life as a petrol filling station in Heybrook. It went on to become one of the country’s biggest car supermarket chains and now employs about 1,700 staff at 21 locations.
The company moved into Nixon Street in 1998 from its previous Molesworth Street site.
Brothers Darren and Noel McKee took over the reins from their father and are reputed to have acquired a fortune of £76m.
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7/12/2007 at 19:24
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10/12/2007 at 21:13