Fenner cuts jobs but remains resilient
CONVEYOR belt manufacturer Fenner has announced that it is to make 290 staff redundant as part of plans to save £11m in costs a year.
The Hull-based group’s chief executive Mark Abrahams said it was taking the action because of the impact of the “deteriorating wider economic conditions” on some of its markets.
However, Mr Abrahams said that the effects had been “limited” and its first quarter trading had been “satisfactory and consistently ahead of last year” and the move keeps costs in line with current business levels.
The majority of the jobs being lost are believed to be from Fenner’s US operations with the rest split between its manufacturing plants in the UK and Europe.
Mr Abrahams said that it would take further action to reduce costs if the economy deteriorates further but underlying demand did not show this at present and the business could perform at the levels it achieved last year.
Fenner, which is based at Hessle, said that the one-off costs of the redundancies would be £3m.
The group increased operating profits to £49.3m on revenue of £437.8m last year.
During the first quarter Mr Abrahams said that its advanced engineered products division “experienced some softening of demand with like for like volumes down by 4%” but trading margins had been protected.
Its conveyor belting division has reduced volumes and pressure on margins in both Europe and America but coal markets – its largest for conveyor belting – remain resilient.
The group said its financing will not need renegotiating for four years which “leaves our balance sheet in a robust position to support our current and immediate future plans”.
