Manufacturing - Brays shifts out of Britain
WORKERS, FEB 2006 ISSUE
A TOTAL of 100 manufacturing jobs at Brays, the Leeds-based manufacturers of gas burners and heating controls, are to go, as the 150-year-old firm shifts production to Mexico and China.
Brays was taken over in 2001 by Italian firm SIT, which has systematically dismantled the booming order book and shifted production overseas. The GMB union has chronicled the asset stripping and lack of investment by SIT but has been faced with competition from cheap foreign labour and production costs.
Brays' factories in the Sheepscar and Meanwood areas of Leeds have for decades been the mainstay of local employment, so the closures will have a deadening impact on the local economy.