270 jobs to go at builders’ merchants

Wolseley UK

Wolseley is to shut its Warwickshire distribution centre and make big cuts at its Leamington headquarters as part of a three-year restructuring plan.

170 jobs will be lost with the closure of the distribution centre in Leamington and a further 100 redundancies will be made at head office among its administration and support functions.

Wolseley owns the Plumb Center, along with other builders’ merchants brands, and specialises in plumbing and building materials.

The remaining 340 people at head office will be relocated to another site locally.

The changes are expected to be fully implemented within the next 18 months.

The announcement adds detail to the company’s restructuring plans first confirmed in September 2016.

A Wolseley spokesperson said: “The plan set out a programme of investment in the business whilst simplifying our branch network and logistics facilities to improve our service to customers and lower our costs.

“Our restructuring proposals included the closure of 80 branches and one distribution centre resulting in 800 redundancies over 2-3 years across the UK.

“To date, we have closed 38 branches with 200 redundancies.”

The company expects its initial estimates of job losses will “remain broadly the same” by the time the changes have been implemented.

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