Date set for closure of glass firm

An Oldbury glass firm is set to close by March 26, it emerged today.

The closure of Pilkington Sealed Units has resulted in 111 job losses.

Bosses said today a handful of staff would stay on to help completely clear the site on Granada Trading Estate by June.

Spokesman Brian Pillington said March 26 had been pencilled in as the closure date but it could be a week earlier.

"We are getting no work in at the moment so it may be earlier," he added. "We are working on a week-by-week basis at the minute because things are winding down."

Company bosses said the economic climate was to blame for the closure of the Oldbury base.

Pilkington entered a 90-day consultation with staff over the redundancies when the closure was announced in December last year.

It employs more than 4,000 people across the UK. The Oldbury base on the Granada Trading Estate manufactures and distributes glass.

Pilkington has other bases in Neachells, Redditch and Kings Norton, Birmingham, which are unaffected. Another Black Country glass firm has been forced to axe jobs after going into administration.

Administrators at KPMG have been appointed at Wolverhampton's Watsons Glass and are hoping to sell the business as a going concern.

Watsons is based on the Manders Estate in Old Heath Road and employed 70 staff but 38 of them have been made redundant.