Pottery manufacturer confirms job cuts as industry ‘readjusts’

Pottery manufacturer Churchill China has confirmed it will be making job cuts at its Stoke-on-Trent plant – but has said no decision has been made as yet on how many jobs will go.

The news comes despite unions claiming last month (May) that as many as 250 jobs could go at the company.

The firm said this morning (11 June) that while it is beginning to see the first signs of an improvement in trading, it still expects overall monthly revenues to remain below 2019 levels for some time as hospitality market activity readjusts.

Churchill China reopened its Stoke manufacturing plant in May a reduced level of output; it says that will now be progressively increased until revised operating levels are reached later this summer.

At its AGM to be held later today, Alan McWalter, chairman, will say: “We have commenced a process to adjust costs across our business consistent with these lower levels of activity and as such we have entered into a consultation period with our employees in relation to the potential reduction in the size of our workforce. We hope that this period will allow us to mitigate the effect of this workforce reduction on our employees. No decision has yet been made on the number of redundancies that may result from this process.

“Our operational and financial position remains strong and we will continue to target growth in export markets where we have significant potential to increase both market share and revenue over the long term. We have an experienced management team and the company retains a high degree of flexibility to respond to the anticipated recovery in business conditions. We will also continue to invest in the development of our business.”