McBride has announced plans to close its Burnley factory next March.

Production at the site, which makes trigger sprays, all purpose cleaners, and liquid sachets, will move to its Bradford, Manchester and Hull sites under the plans.

McBride said it would try to find jobs for the 300 full time workers and 50 temporary staff at its other facilities, but expected redundancies.

A spokesman said it had earmarked the Burnley site for closure because it offered no scope for the expansion that would be required to absorb its other sites.

"A number of factors have influenced these proposals, most significantly the extremely challenging economic and trading environment and the need to drive down our cost base and improve our operational efficiency to remain competitive," the company said in a statement.

"Formal consultation has begun with the Works Council on the proposals. Should the proposals go ahead every effort will be made to provide the
employees affected with a full programme of support and where possible redeployment opportunities will be explored."

Under the consultation, employees at McBride will have a chance to question and challenge the proposals and suggest alternatives, HR director Malcolm
Allan said. The consultation on the proposals will run for 90 days. If the closure goes ahead, a redundancy consultation would begin in mid-October.

A trading update issued by the company earlier this month reported growth of just 1% in the year to 30 June. The growth was driven by central and eastern
Europe, which offset "difficult trading conditions" in the UK. The closure would leave four McBride factories in the UK and a further 13 in Europe.

Read more
McBride to streamline as sales stagnate (07 July 2011)
Raw materials costs hit McBride profits (3 May 2011)
McBride blames materials costs for slump in profits (8 February 2011)