Timber garden products manufacturer Forest Garden is to close its manufacturing operations at Lockerbie with the loss of 70 jobs.
Manufacturing and distribution operations at the factory, including the assembly of fence panels and sheds, will move to its plants at Eardisley and Hartlebury in England. The sawmill at Lockerbie is not affected by the plans.
Forest Garden’s head of marketing Vicky Nuttall told TTJ that the restructuring was designed to address the sawn timber supply problems which faced the fencing industry earlier this year.
“While Forest has the advantage of owning its own sawmills at Lockerbie and Sennybridge, it was still unable to produce enough sawn timber to meet the unprecedented demand caused by the January storms, such that customer orders had to be rationed,” the company said.
“Moving the manufacturing process from Lockerbie will create more undercover storage so that the sawmill can operate on a permanent three-shift system throughout the year and thereby maximise sawn timber supply into its assembly operations.”
Forest Garden said a number of workers were considering an opportunity to work at Hartlebury and Eardisley, while further jobs are expected to be created at the Lockerbie sawmill.
