A factory that was set to see over 250 redundancies, has been saved.
Earlier this year, the Sealy factory in Aspatria that make sprung mattresses had issued redundancy notices to staff.
Due to a collective local response headed up by MP Mark Jenkinson who brought together local stakeholders including Allerdale Borough Council and The Cumbria Partnership, a purchasing entity was found, and the factory has been secured.
Mark Jenkinson MP had raised his concern with the Secretary of State for BEIS over the number of redundancies in Aspatria. He then convened meetings in Cumbria with the local councils, trade unions, the LEP and other relevant stakeholders, to set about drawing up a plan to save the factory.
Mark said ‘We had a number of meetings to ascertain what could and could not be achieved. I made it clear from the beginning that this number of redundancies was unacceptable. Aspatria is a community town and the entire workforce of the Sealy factory lives in my constituency.
It was important to me that we could not just let the factory close. I had to do all I could to try to save those jobs. Just accepting those redundancies wasn’t an option for me. I was also conscious that I did not want to lose the manufacturing of a high end, quality product from the Workington constituency.’
Through working with local stakeholders, Mark secured support from Allerdale Borough Council and The Cumbria Partnership.
Mike Johnson, Deputy Leader of Allerdale Borough Council said: “I am pleased that this collective effort has resulted in the Sealy factory remaining open and staying in Allerdale. I want to continue to work with the management at the factory to ensure that they are supported and that the council do everything we can to retain local jobs and encourage quality manufacturing in our area.”
