Heating and Ventilating

Wolseley UK's Leamington Spa headquarters and its Ripon office has be hit by job cuts for the second time in 18 months, with the latest round of bad news affecting 84 jobs.
Wolseley UK will cull 73 jobs at its headquarters and 11 jobs at its Ripon office.

Last year Wolseley announced 47 UK branches would close and the company made 150 job losses at its HQ and 30 job cuts at Ripon.

The giant heating equipment supplier's HR operations are based at its Ripon office. In July 2008, Wolseley announced it was merging its group and UK operations HR teams, reporting to Bob Morrison, group HR director.

The company has blamed the economic downturn in the US (where the majority of its sales are made) for its decision to make job losses overseas and in the UK.

Rob Marchbank, chief executive for Europe and Managing Director Wolseley UK, said: “Given the deterioration in several of our markets, including the UK, we have continued to take action to reduce duplication and make cost savings across our operations.

“The review focused on driving greater emphasis on serving the customer with empowered branches, balanced with the appropriate central support structures which the business can afford'.

A spokesman for the firm would not comment when asked whether more redundancies were planned for the UK.

In August, Wolseley UK restructured its organisation to create three new divisions - Lightside, Heavyside and Commercial and Industrial.

Marchbank added ”I am confident that today’s changes, along with the recent establishment of our new divisional structure, will ensure we emerge from the current economic challenges equipped to successfully compete in our marketplaces.”