Aga to cut another 63 jobs in Shropshire

The job losses will affect the company's factory and offices in Ketley, and its historic foundry in Coalbrookdale.

The company was taken over by US giant Middleby Corp in a £129 million deal last year.

Today's announcement comes after nearly 70 jobs were lost across the two sites in December.

Aga Rangemaster today said further cuts were needed.

Last month it was revealed that sales fell by around 6.9 per cent last year, as sales of cookers slowed down, and the latest announcement suggests there has been no let-up in 2016.

An Aga spokesman said: "Aga Rangemaster Ltd is implementing a number of organisational changes that impact its Aga operation at Telford.

"These changes are linked to current market conditions. Unfortunately the impact of these changes is that the company has placed the roles of 63 employees at risk of redundancy.

"The company is consulting with the staff and union representatives to minimise any potential compulsory redundancies wherever possible."

Staff were called into a meeting and told the news, and one worker who wished to remain anonymous said he was disappointed by the company's handling of the site.

"The way it is being run it is almost as if it's being run into the ground," the worker said.

"We don't see anything of Middleby, our new owners, they have always been kept away from people on the shop floor.

"They have never stood in front of us and said we are Middleby and this is what we intend to do.

"The way we see it is it is down to a lack of investment. There's no investment in the product. The product is outdated and they have put no money into it."

At present around 208 people are employed on the shop floor, and around 30 jobs are expected to go in that area as a result of the latest cuts. The remainder under threat are in the company's office operation.

The takeover deal helped add £98 million to Middleby's sales in the three months to August, but that figure also took into account organic sales growth and other takeovers.