Marshalls Maltby plant closure to bring job cuts
Up to 50 jobs could be axed with the closure of a paving stone plant in South Yorkshire.
Huddersfield-based firm Marshalls is to close its site in Maltby by the end of the year because of a worse-than-feared slump in the building industry.
The company said up to 50 staff would be affected but it hoped to limit cuts by redeploying staff elsewhere in the business or with other local employers.
The firm is also consulting over cuts across the wider business.
Marshalls said it was looking at a "small percentage" of losses among its 2,300 employees.
Details of the Maltby closure came as the company reported a 38% fall in half-year pre-tax profits to £7.6m from £12.2m for the same period last year.
Marshalls said while the weather had since improved, the outlook for the construction sector had deteriorated.
Chief executive Graham Holden said cost cutting efforts would help the group tackle the bleak economic conditions.
The company said while operations were being shut down at Maltby it would retain the site in the hope of reactivating works when trading conditions improved.
The Maltby plant was bought by Marshalls in 1969 and is one of 12 concrete manufacturing sites owned by the group.
The group said that cost-cutting efforts so far had helped improve trading margins, which were up by 1% since the first half.
Its cost cutting plans aim to boost profits by £7m a year, according to the group.
It said it was also looking to expand its international business to offset the domestic economic problems.