Huntsman to invest £11m in Whitehaven, UK site; 45 jobs to be lost

08 March 2004 16:12  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--The performance products division of US-headquartered chemicals group Huntsman announced on Monday plans to invest £11m ($20.3m/Euro16.4m) on productivity improvements at its Whitehaven site in Cumbria, northwest England.

Huntsman said the investment, to be spread over the next three to four years, would yield fixed cost savings of around £3m per year from 2007 and help secure the site's future.

The improvements, which will involve investment in more modern technology plus the relocation and consolidation of various plant and equipment, will result in about 45 job losses.

A spokesman for Huntsman said the job cuts, roughly 27% of the current Whitehaven workforce of around 164 people, were in addition to the 85 lost under last year's restructuring programme. This programme, which has yielded some £5m in savings, involved the closure of three product lines - tertiary amines, ethoxylation and alcohols.

The new investment includes retaining and consolidating in a different lay-out the existing six manufacturing units - sulphonation, amine derivatives, methyl esters, CAPB (a type of betane), SLS (sodium lauryl sulphate) dried products and heavy duty liquids.

The Huntsman spokesman said design work had already commenced and initial construction work would begin in about four to six months.

Whitehaven site director Michael Carter said in a statement: “It is well-known that the site has been starved of sufficient levels of capital investment for many years, and this has resulted in several plant closures in recent years. While we regret that this project could potentially lead to a further streamlining of the current workforce levels, we strongly believe that the substantial investment we will be putting in over the next few years will help secure the future of the site for the long term.”

He added: “We are absolutely convinced that consolidating the manufacturing units into a more efficient and compact structure and concentrating on the areas which are core to our business and further complement our existing strengths, is the right way forward towards preserving a significant manufacturing base at Whitehaven. Without this investment, one of the very difficult but very real possibilities for us to consider would have been complete site closure.”

The Huntsman spokesman said the £11m investment would come from the group's internal resources.

By: Neil Sinclair
+44 20 8652 3214

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