BAE to close Chadderton facility

BAE Systems is to close its plant in Chadderton, Greater Manchester.

The defence giant said it wanted to move the operation, which carries out procurement and engineering support, to its base in Salmesbury, Lancashire.

Around 160 people work at the site and some of them will be offered positions in Salmesbury but redundancies are expected.

The Chadderton site was opened in 1939 by aircraft maker Avro and went on to build Lancaster Bombers during the Second World War. At one time it employed 11,000 people.

The transfer of operations will take place between September and March.

Around 80 staff at Chadderton lost their jobs earlier in the year after BAE outlined a restructuring programme that affected nearly 1,000 positions at its facilities across the North West. It has previously annouced the closure of its site at Woodford, near Stockport, with the loss of 600 jobs.

A spokeswoman for BAE Systems said: “BAE Systems is proud of its long association with the Chadderton site.

“However, a significant reduction in the site’s workload means that it is no longer viable for BAE Systems to continue to operate out of the site.

“We can confirm that we have announced today the start of consultation regarding the proposal to transfer all the ongoing businesses from our Chadderton site to our Samlesbury site progressively between September 2011 and March 2012. 

“Full support to our customers will be maintained.”