Nobia, the parent company behind Magnet Kitchens, has announced plans to close its manufacturing facility in Halifax, which will impact approximately 60 employees.
Following the closure, Nobia says it will relocate its Halifax manufacturing facility to its Darlington site. Nobia plans it intends to repurpose the soon-to-be closed Halifax site into a storage facility.
The company says that it is also committed to supporting employees impacted by the relocation, and will look to explore alternative employment opportunities wherever feasible.
Nobia estimates that the closure will incur a total cost of approximately £4.7M, with this cost to be included in the company’s Q2 financial results.
In January 2023, Nobia first announced its plans to potentially close some of its UK sites. The company said the UK has turned in a ‘weak performance’ and it planned to undertake a ‘repositioning’ as part of a wider cost reduction programme. At the time, the company proposed closing production sites in Dewsbury, Yorkshire and Grays, Essex.
President and chief executive of Nobia, Jon Sintorn, said that the closure is part of the company’s ongoing business strategy for the UK market. He explained: “Our UK transformation is going according to plan and the closure of Halifax forms part of our initiative to considerably lower our fixed cost base and restore profitability in the UK”
Sintorn recently announced his plans to step down from his role at the company, remaining at Nobia until the end of June 2024.
In other news, Nobia, recently reported a massive fall in its end-of-year results, with operating profit down by more than 150%. In 2022, Nobia ended the year with operating profit of SKr 191 million (£14.6m). However, in its 2023 figures, this plummeted to a loss of SKr 99 million.