Bronnley to Cut 41 Jobs

Unless you happen to live in the UK you probably do not know the name Bronnley that well. For those of you who are not currently living under the Union Jack here is a look at how the company describes itself, “Today, Bronnley remains a leading British soap and toiletries company famous for the abundance of natural almond oil, herb, flower and tree extracts blended into our soaps and toiletries.  The magic of soap making demands skill, luxurious materials and careful attention to detail.  Essential oils made from plant extracts, super fatting – the addition of avocado oil and triple milling – which assures blended consistency – must be combined to perfection to produce our soaps.  Quality above everything is the cornerstone of Bronnley which is why we are ‘Makers of the best soaps in the world’.”

Well it looks like the company is hoping to uphold that reputation without a portion of its staff. The company is getting ready to cut back on a serious percentage of its workers at a single facility. The company is laying off 41 workers at its facility in Northamptonshire and while that may not sound like a lot of job losses in absolute terms it is a high percentage. The company only employs 61 people at the facility currently, so the loss of 41 workers is a cut of slightly more than two thirds of workers currently at the facility.

For the time being the company has not made an official announcement about the job cuts, so there are a lot of unknowns to be dealt with. There is no word on what date the layoffs will be effective on, as well as no word on what kind of a severance package, if any, the soon to be displaced workers will be given by the company they have served. All we do know is that because the job cuts are coming from a plant, instead of an office, that they are likely to impact the workers in manufacturing positions instead of those in clerical, administrative or management positions.

It seems like all around the world manufacturing jobs have been taking some serious hits as this multi-year economic slump has been making many companies re-think their place in the market and the future for their workers.  In other parts of Europe the cuts have been worse. Take, for example, the cuts to Gamesa, in Spain. For those of you who missed out on our earlier coverage here is a look at the job cuts there that will get you up to speed in no time at all, “The company is getting ready to get rid of about 73 workers, and while that is not enough to even constitute one percent of the overall workers that the company employs it is still enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines… Interestingly enough this is not the only cash saving measure that the company has undertaken in the recent past. The most recent news release put out by the company was about the sale of one of its assets.”