Hoover Shifts Production to China

Hoover, the Italian-owned domestic appliance maker, said yesterday it is to cease manufacturing of vacuum cleaners at its Cambuslang plant in Glasgow with the loss of more than 260 jobs.

The Amicus engineering union denounced the move to switch the bulk of produc tion to China, where wages are a 10th of those in Scotland, as another "devastating blow" for manufacturing.

Hoover invested £1.25m at the Cambuslang factory 18 months ago to produce a new cylinder cleaner in a move hailed then by Amicus as saving the plant from closure. Company officials said the cylinder cleaner could be switched to Merthyr Tydfil, its main British plant in south Wales, which makes washing machines and tumble dryers and employs 800.

Cambuslang, which had 4,000 workers a decade ago and has been operating since 1946, will keep about 100 jobs.

The workforce won plaudits from Hoover in April 2002 for agreeing to productivity changes that enabled the new cleaner to be built at the Glasgow plant.

But yesterday the company said: "Despite improvements in efficiency made over many years, continued production is proving uneconomic and unviable in today's market conditions."

Amicus said up to 1,000 jobs could be lost in the local service and supply industries. "Here we have yet another iconic UK brand switching production overseas. I implore the government to introduce stronger employment protection to stem the flow of manufacturing jobs abroad," Derek Simpson, co-leader, said.