Council's 'hope' for tile factory

Former staff still have not been contacted about their futures

Wrexham Council leader Aled Roberts has said the company which owns the Dennis Ruabon tile factory has told officials it wants to continue manufacturing.

The company, now owned by Ruabon Sales Ltd, laid off more than 80 workers last month when it went into administrative receivership.

Dennis Ruabon is thought to be the last UK manufacturer of clay quarry tiles.

Mr Roberts said the firm had said nothing about re-employing workers, but he hoped some would get jobs back.

A total of 68 staff and more than a dozen agency workers were unexpectedly sent home by management in January after being told there was no money to pay them.

It's all in its early stages but they have indicated to us that it's their intention to re-start manufacturing Council Leader Aled Roberts

Since then, the Unite union has claimed it has had no contact from Dennis Ruabon Tiles, or from Ruabon Sales Ltd which acquired the company on 1 February.

The union claimed workers had been left in the dark about the future of their jobs and whether tile manufacturing would continue at the site.

But following discussions between the authority and the new owners, Cllr Roberts said: "It's all in its early stages but they have indicated to us that it's their intention to re-start manufacturing.

"We are now trying to establish what scale this will be on and discuss with the unions and the workforce what this might mean in terms of re-employment.

"We're continuing our discussions with the company and I'm hoping that this will lead to at least some of the workers getting their jobs back."

Aled Roberts said he hoped some workers would get their jobs back

However, Clwyd South MP Martyn Jones - who raised the issue of the factory closure during a Commons debate on Thursday - warned the situation was still "very uncertain".

He added: "The ex-employees are still being kept in the dark and the administrative receivers didn't keep them informed about what was happening.

"I think it's time that the workers and the council were told exactly what's going."

Local councillor David Bithell said there were still a lot of issues to be resolved.

"A lot of the workforce live in my area and it's a very difficult time for them financially," he said.

"They are still quite angry at the way the situation was handled, but they are hopeful that they may get their jobs back.

"In the meantime, we want to meet with union officials to see if there's anything the council can do to help them in the interim."

Nobody from the company was available for comment.