Jobs go at caravan maker as MFI announces redundancies

THE second biggest holiday caravan manufacturer has gone into administration -dealing another blow to Hull’s beleaguered holiday home industry.

Atlas Holiday Caravan Homes in Hull – which has made 344 staff redundant – called in the administrators after hitting “insurmountable cash flow problems.”

Atlas has traded in Hull for the past 30 years – supplying both UK and continental European caravan park owners.

Administrators BDO Stoy Hayward said: ” Despite cost cutting measures including redundancies and shutdowns, the cash flow requirements proved to be too great a burden and the directors were left with no alternative but to appoint administrators.

“After an initial review of the company, the administrators have regrettably had to make 344 staff redundant. The business has now largely ceased to trade.”

The news followed an announcement at Corus in Scunthorpe which said workers were facing pay cuts of up to 11.5% in response to the current economic downturn.

Meanwhile it has been reported that MFI is to axe 1,200 shop staff after the closure of all of its 111 stores – including 13 in Yorkshire – after administrators failed to find a buyer for the business.

The announcement follows the news that Woolworths will close 807 stores by January 5, with up to 27,000 workers expected to lose their jobs.

The last MFI store closed on Wednesday, and in addition a further 350 staff have been made redundant at MFI’s £65m warehouse in Thorne, Doncaster.

The staff at the site are employed by service provider DHL, which operates the site on behalf of MFI – DHL said it hoped to redeploy as many staff as possible.

MFI blamed the credit crunch for its collapse- with suppliers going bust and sales tumbling,

The collapse of the two retailers has also raised the prospect of hundreds of empty stores on Britain’s high streets at a time when dozens of bank branches are expected to shut down following unprecedented turmoil in financial markets