'It's a kick in the teeth for the community and everyone who works here' 250 job losses as last mill

closes WORKERS were left stunned this week as bosses announced the closure of the last paper mill in Buckinghamshire with the loss of 250 jobs.

Many of the workers at Felix Schoeller Ltd, Glory Mill, Wooburn Green, left the factory in tears after the firm's German owners broke the news at a meeting on Wednesday.

They had been called into the factory from an enforced two-week holiday which arose after an order fell through.

The closure will see the demise of paper-making at the Glory Mill site which has existed since Elizabethan times.

As employees left, one worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said she was devastated.

"I've worked here for nearly 20 years and I'm gutted that the last paper mill in Bucks is closing. This is a real kick in the teeth for the community and everyone who works here," she said.

Dr Bernhard Klofat, vice-president of the mill's owners, the Felix Schoeller Group, which acquired the mill in 1995, told the Bucks Free Press: "It is an extremely sad day and a bitter blow.

"I and the other managers in Felix Schoeller very much regret having to take this decision."

He said the profits for the group, which has its headquarters in Osnabruck, Germany, had been badly affected by the economic crises in south-east Asia, Russia and Latin America.

The closure of production at the mill, which employs 310 people, will be phased in over the next 18 months. Some of the 250 staff affected could be offered jobs at Felix Schoeller mills in Germany and the USA.

Gerhard Mulder, managing director of Felix Schoeller Ltd, said: "We will endeavour to alleviate the problem of closure as much as possible.

"I am hopeful that some employees will accept other jobs at the company's mills at Weissenborn, Germany, or at Pulaski in the USA."

Vice-chairman of Wooburn Parish Council, John Dalton, said he was "gutted" by the closure. "This is another nail in the coffin for British industry," he said.

James Elles, Tory MEP for Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire East, said he, like many others, was "sad" that paper would no longer be manufactured locally. "More particularly there is sadness for those who will lose their jobs," he added.

Wooburn parish councillor Christine Pow said the closure would create a big hole in Wooburn Green. "This is just the latest in a long line of closures. First we lost Jackson's Mill, then Soho Mill and now Felix Schoeller," she said.

Discussions are under way to sell the 22-acre site for redevelopment. The group's marketing and research and development departments will lease back premises at Wooburn Green.

Detailed discussions with employees and union leaders begin next month.

the GPMU (Graphical, Paper and Media Union) start in early April. Dr Bernhard Klofat, Dr Bernhard Klofat, vice-president of the mill's German owners, the Felix Schoeller Group,

The announced closure of Glory Mill is the latest in a series of blows to the area's manufacturing industry. In December 71 job losses were announced at the Vitramon plant in Wooburn Green and last week 18 redundancies were announced at Kurt Mueller (UK) Ltd in Sands, High Wycombe.

Dr: "I was an awful day for the employees, management, owners and the workers."

and had to confront a slowdown in market growth and tougher price competition.

and are planning a gradual phased shut-down which will extend into the second half of 2000.

Elles: "This announcement of closure will sadden many, who, like myself, would have liked to have seen paper being manufactured locally.

Redundancy payments are expected to be higher than the statutory minimum.

Dalton: Nearly 300 jobs will be lost.

for everybody in Wooburn."

We have always been pleased in the past to work with Glory Mill andto include the lease back of premises to house

Parish: "There will be families in this area that have had generations and generations who have worked at the mill. It is a very sad day."

Richard Cummins, chief executive of Wycombe District Council, said he was "very sorry" to hear the news.

council: "We regret the trading condition worldwide that has led to this commercial decision," he said.

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