Growing media and garden chemicals producer William Sinclair is closing three sites and shedding over 100 jobs in a move to consolidate its English operations at its new production facility in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.
Part of a wide-ranging restructuring plan for the 165-year old company, the process is expected to see the imminent closure of its Bolton Fell bark plant in Carlisle, the Astley Moss peat bog near Manchester and the Beevor Street, Lincoln storage facility.

Under the proposal, production of chemicals and fertilisers will continue at the company's Firth Road site in Lincoln. However the head office, growing media and central admin functions will transfer to Ellesmere Port.

Having incurred losses since the double blow of a poor peat harvest in 2012 followed by the enforced closure of its growing media production facility at Bolton Fell under a compulsory purchase order from Natural England, Sinclair is also seeking to reduce overheads at Ellesmere Port.

This will involve restructuring the commercial team and streamlining the supply chain, marketing and technical departments.

Overall, the company expects to shed three jobs at Astley Moss, nine at Bolton Fell and 74 of the 93 positions at Lincoln. Approximately 20 job losses, including agency personnel, are also proposed at Ellesmere Port where the head count is presently 125, but these will be offset by a number of new jobs still to be determined.

William Sinclair Holdings CEO Stuart Burgin said: "It is regrettable that our proposed restructuring process will mean some job losses, but we must increase efficiency, find economies and realise non-core assets throughout the business in order to be fit for sustainable growth and profitability.

"Having invested over £25m in our Ellesmere Port supersite, which boasts the world's most advanced twin track production line, we must ensure that the business is in a position to harvest the profits from that investment."

He said that integrating operations under one roof would bring significant benefits in efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

William Sinclair is now conducting a consultation process with employees across all sites which is expected to result in a mixture of job relocation offers as well as redundancies.

The company's Scottish peat mosses in South Lanarkshire and Stirlingshire, which employ 26 people, are unaffected.