Driven out

Truline Distribution Centre in Broadgate, Chadderton

HUNDREDS of workers at an Oldham stationery firm are set to lose their jobs in a miserable start to the new year.

Around 240 jobs will be lost when Banner Truline relocates to Wakefield.

Staff at the company, at the Broadgate Distribution Centre on Broadway Business Park in Chadderton, have been told they will be made redundant on March 1.

The Chronicle understands there are 170 contracted staff and 70 agency workers at the former HMSO business, which has contracts with the Ministry of Defence, the NHS and several of the country’s major banks, including Barclays and NatWest.

The business was owned by the Vasanta Group, one the country’s largest stationery names, and is now owned by the EVO Group. The new owners have confirmed the Chadderton site will close and have expressed “great sadness”.

One worker, who did not wish to be named, said: “There has not been a proper consultation, we are just being offered peanuts.

“When we were taken over in October the workforce was told there would be 12 months of negotiations, yet by November we were hearing about the redundancies.

“If the company was going into liquidation these figures they are offering would be understandable, as there wouldn’t be any money, but we have good contracts with some important organisations and that is why we have been taken over, not because we are struggling. The new owners just want to get rid of all of us on the cheap.”

A company statement says: “The EVO Group has been refining its plans to create one high-performing business from the merger of two organisations.

John Burkill, group operations director, said: “We are committed to treating all individuals fairly and offering them as much support as possible.