ALMOST 300 jobs are in jeopardy after it was revealed that wallpaper and home furnishings giant Coloroll is set to shut down its Nelson factory at Christmas.

Shocked staff were given the bombshell news as they arrived for work yesterday and were told that production will switch to Hyde in Cheshire - almost 50 miles away.

Workers were sent home and told to report back to the Nelson factory on Monday.

Coloroll's head offices and manufacturing plant at Riverside Mill, Nelson, will close at the end of the year, but the company's sites in Burnley will be largely unaffected. The company employs around 300 people in Burnley and Pendle, the vast majority of them in Nelson and staff who lose their jobs could be offered redeployment at Hyde.

The reorganisation follows the £30million takeover of wallpaper rival Vymura in the summer by Coloroll's parent company Gleadway.

Representatives from the Graphical Paper and Media Union (GPMU) met senior managers at the company's head offices at Riverside Mill yesterday lunchtime to start negotiations.

Production of Coloroll, John Wilman and Vymura brands will be concentrated at the Vymura plant in Hyde, Cheshire.

One worker, who asked not be named, said up to 100 alternative jobs were on offer in Hyde.

He added: "It's not come as a surprise. It's down to the management in the end. The way they have run the place is diabolical. It's just gone down and down in the three years I've been here."

Raymond McCaige, who joined the company five years ago after being made redundant from Smith & Nephew, Colne, said: "I can't see people wanting to travel to Hyde. I suppose the young ones might. It's the people who have worked here for 20 years I feel sorry for." The Nelson factory will continue production until Christmas and then be shut down. Accounting and finance staff will be switched from Coloroll's sites on Heasandford Industrial Estate, Burnley, to Hyde, but the factory shop and other parts of the business will remain and the company will create an export and administration centre on the estate to generate sales and deal with customer services.

Gleadway chairman Mike Hennessy said the parent company was merging the businesses of Coloroll, John Wilman and Vymura to create a single, stronger business in the face of falling sales.

He said: "The wallcoverings industry is suffering from chronic over-capacity. The wallcoverings association reported volumes were 20 per cent down for the year compared to this time last year and it is the third or fourth year they have fallen. No-one makes any money."

Mr Hennessy said the Hyde site was chosen because it was a modern factory on an industrial site with room for expansion. The Nelson site is in a mill surrounded by houses with no space to expand.

He added: "We will do what we can to help people.

"We hope to offer alternative jobs in Hyde and all the vacancies we will create by the reorganisation will be filled from within the company apart from a few specialist posts."

GPMU branch secretary Terry Thompson said: "It's an absolute major blow to the area, not only because of the number of jobs there but also because many are very highly skilled.

"Even if they are offered alternative jobs it's a 45-mile drive to Hyde.

"We want to get talks with the management up and running as fast as possible."

Pendle Council chief executive Stephen Barnes said: "We've very concerned for the workforce.

"We will be seeking a meeting with the company to see if there is anything we can do to change this decision. It is very sad that this action has been taken." Mr Barnes said the council had not been consulted by the company and the news came "out of the blue."

Businessman John Wilman rose from a 15-year-old apprentice to become part-owner of one of the three biggest wallcovering names in the country.

At Riverside Mill in Nelson he developed his own designs which went on to adorn thousands of walls around the world.

He advised the firm to take on John Ashcroft, the man who was eventually to take Coloroll public.

The firm underwent nothing short of a mind-boggling expansion and its through-the-floor crash took everyone by surprise.

Mr Wilman rebuilt the workforce and John Wilman Ltd bought the Nelson and Burnley arms of the Coloroll empire and the company was back to the level it was before the crash which rocked the stock market.

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