It's always a shock when a household name goes under. The latest victim is Amdega, based in Darlington and the oldest manufacturer of greenhouses and conservatories in the world.
The firm's collapse only a year after takeover by a private equity company (PEC) means the almost certain loss of all but a handful of its 197 jobs. An estimated 300 contracts, following in the footsteps of celebrity clients such as Sir Michael Caine, Sting and Barbra Streisand, also look to be abandoned unfinished.
The blow for Darlington, where Amdega started life in 1874, follows 70 redundancies eight years ago in a pre-emptive move to cope with expected recession after a prosperous period which saw the workforce rise to 370. But times proved even leaner than expected and orders are understood to have fallen by a third in the last year.
Amdega was taken over in August by the PEC Endless which voiced optimism about increasing turnover to over £20 million from 15 countries serviced by sub contractors. But a spokesman for the firm says that administration is the only option after business flopped and a last-minute potential buyer dropped out.
"We appointed a new senior management team shortly after our investment, who all worked tirelessly and, with the workforce, achieved some significant operational improvements," he said. "However, due to the significant legacy issues we inherited, together with extremely difficult trading conditions, sadly, a rescue of the company has not been possible."
The collapse will have a serious knock-on for dozens of sub-contractors who erect the conservatories, which cost up to £150,000 and usually require a hefty deposit.. Stephen Tompkins, regional organiser for the GMB union, said that lack of staff consultation had been "disgraceful". He called the decision "a betrayal of the many years of hard work by the workforce to build up an internationally known brand name."
Jenny Chapman, Labour MP for Darlington, said that the loss of 188 jobs was "devastating for the town" and promised to campaign for maximum help for those out of work. She also criticized the "lack of warning" and said: "This is an historic company, which has been in Darlington for more than 100 years. It has built its reputation on the back of its workforce here in the town. They deserve better."
Worse down south
Darlington has wider employment problems, especially among 18-24-year-olds. The number without jobs in that age range is heading for twice last year's figure – an 83 percent rise. But that tally, just published in the Office for National Statistics' regular report on unemployment, goes alongside some rather different figures.
With 6.5 claimants for each vacancy at the moment, Darlington is very close to the national average of six; and less prosperous northern towns such as Stockton-on-Tees and Wigan are not too much worse at around ten per place. The national league table shows that the hunt for a job is much tougher in Scotland and the south of England, which together take every place in the top ten.
To some extent we are talking about smaller numbers of people overall, but not wholly. The figures make good material for any northerner's sacred duty of reversing misconceptions about our three regions which would all assume that the problem was the other way. There isn't a single northern council area in the top ten, whereas the south has Haringey (29 per place), Lewisham (26), Hackney (26), Greenwich (22), Lambeth (19) and even the Isle of Wight, where there are 3557 people on Jobseeker's Allowance and only 186 advertised vacancies. That's also 19 per place.
Glorious up north
And just another misconception-reversal. For a fortnight now, it has emphatically not been grim up north. I'm talking about the weather, which the Northerner feted three days ago. On it goes: another day of glorious sunshine, warm, blue sky, most-untypical-of-a-Bank-Holiday-anywhere…
