Deal safeguards 600 cooker jobs

Electrolux has a cost-cutting programme

Some 600 jobs at a County Durham factory have been secured after a multimillion-pound investment.

The Electrolux plant in Spennymoor has launched a new line of cookers as part of a £7m investment in the site. Almost £2m has also come from public funds.

The Swedish firm has relocated about 10 of its 27 plants in western Europe and North America to low-cost countries in Asia and eastern Europe.

The firm hopes the new line will secure the long-term future of the plant.

The company plans to make more than 120,000 cookers a year at Spennymoor.

Regional development agency One NorthEast agreed to plough £1.6m into the plant in an effort to retain jobs in an area which has seen hundreds of manufacturing posts lost over the past 18 months.

New range

But plant general manager Dave Watroba said there was no long-term jobs guarantee.

He said: "In terms of going forward, longer term, there are no guarantees, because circumstances can change.

"Moving jobs from Spennymoor out to the Far East is not likely because the cooking products we make here are big, bulky items and it is very difficult to transport them from the Far East and make money on them.

"For the next three years we have a number of phases being added to the new range so we have plenty to go at."

In February the company, the world's largest maker of home appliances, said it wanted to shift more of its manufacturing to low-cost countries.

It has another factory in nearby Newton Aycliffe, which makes lawn and garden products in Newton Aycliffe.