Wigan glass plant faces closure, with 250 redundancies, if no rescue deal found

Up to 250 jobs at a Wigan glass plant are at risk after parent group, Nippon Electric Glass, announced a strategic review which is expected to last two months.

The Japanese group bought the Electric Glass Fiber UK Hindley Green plant in 2016.

In August, 2018, it announced a £15m investment in the site, which it said would guarantee its future for a decade.

It held a special ‘furnace blessing’ ceremony as part of the investment.

The end use of the fibre glass it creates is in wind turbine blades, and replacing the steel in vehicles, trains and planes to increase fuel efficiency.

However, the Guardian has reported that the site could shut unless NEG finds a new partner or buyer.

The owner said its UK composites arm had been “facing a challenging competitive environment with high prices for raw materials, energy, and logistics costs” that had led to “sluggish sales”.

It said: “This review is part of our ongoing efforts to recover performance.”

The Wigan operation made a loss of £3.47m in 2023, according to its most recent financial accounts. That compared with a profit of £7.4m in 2022.

The company accounts said its profits had fallen because of “lower customer demand resulting from competition from Chinese imports” as well as other factors including higher costs for raw materials.

The company said it is open to selling the business, or “forming strategic partnerships”.

But if no solution was found, it said it could lead to the closure of the plant.

The Wigan site is the only manufacturing operation in Europe owned by NEG.