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| Pilkington glass factory in St Helens to close | Pilkington glass factory in St Helens to close |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Pilkington Glass is to close its factory in St Helens, Merseyside, with the loss of 140 jobs, it has announced. | |
| The firm, which employs 2,500 staff across the UK, said it decided to end manufacturing at the Cowley Hill site after making "huge losses". | |
| In February staff there threatened to strike over plans to freeze salaries or axe pension increases due to the firm's "financial position". | |
| The GMB union said the news was a "devastating blow" for the area. | |
| Redundancy discussions | |
| Pilkington Glass managing director, Matt Buckley, said the closure followed falling demand for architectural glass in the economic downturn. | |
| He said: "This segment of our business is hugely loss-making and we have had to address it in order to protect the rest of our business." | |
| The firm said it is in discussions over compulsory and voluntary redundancies with employees and their representatives. | |
| Charlie Leonard, of the GMB union, said: "We will meet with the company to fully understand the position and to assess what can be done to mitigate the extent of job losses. | |
| "The closure of this high tech production plant and the loss of highly skilled, well-paid jobs is yet another major blow to the core of UK manufacturing." | |
| Pilkington closed its factory in Basildon, Essex, in 2011 with the loss of 30 jobs. | |
| It is owned by Japan-based firm NSG, which in February cut 3,500 jobs globally. |