Endless-owned Crown paints to cut jobs

CROWN Paints, the Lancashire paint maker, has announced plans to cut 140 jobs from its UK and Irish workforce of around 1,500 and said its site in Hull will be affected.

The move by the private-equity owned company follows a review of the business by new owner, Leeds-based buyout fund Endless, and in light of a slump in trade caused by the slowdown in consumer spending.

A spokesman for the Darwen-based company, which sponsors struggling Premiership football club Blackburn Rovers said sites in Lancashire, Warrington, Hull, Belfast and Dublin would be affected.

He added: “Like many other businesses in UK, Crown Paints has been impacted significantly by the global recession, which has seriously contracted both our trade and retail markets and we don’t expect to see any real improvement to this trading climate for at least the next 12 months.

“Following a thorough review of our operations and as part of our drive to improve efficiency, we propose to implement a restructuring programme across the business.

“This process will include the introduction of a number of improvements to bring our cost base in line with anticipated future performance and, regrettably, it is also likely to result in a number of redundancies.

“We are currently going through a consultation process with our staff.  This communication with our employees is our priority, therefore it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time.”

Company insiders said the cuts had been expected. The £180m turnover business was previously owned by Dutch giant Akzo Nobel but was sold to satisfy European competition chiefs after its acquisition of Dulux paint maker ICI last year.

Business turnaround specialist Endless is reported to have paid up to £70m for Crown earlier this year.