Company to halt 100 years of engineering in Colchester (From Gazette)

Company to halt 100 years of engineering in Colchester

12:00am Saturday 1st August 2009

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A RENOWNED manufacturing firm is set to stop engineering in Colchester after more than a century in the town.

Consultation has begun on making redundant 18 of the 23 engineers based at Eimco Water Technologies, formerly Brackett Green, based at Severalls Business Park.

The Gazette understands the company, known worldwide for its water screening equipment which has been used in power plants and refineries, plans to stop manufacturing in Colchester.

It is understood around 50 staff working at offices and warehouse storage will be moved to another, smaller site which could be local, but has not yet been decided.

One engineer, who did not want to be named, said consultation on the changes was ongoing, but that he expected redundancies.

He added: “The company plans to stop manufacturing on the Colchester site after 110 years.

“It’s a great shame. Most of the guys have been here for 20, 30 or even 40 years.

“It’s not people who have just been here a little while.

“For some of them it’s the only job they have ever had.”

Colchester MP Bob Russell said: “I think this is another sad day in the demise of Colchester’s proud role over the last 150 years as being a major engineering centre.

“I know people who have worked at Brackett for decades. It was a company which had a lot of staff loyalty.

“This is symptomatic of the huge contraction of engineering in the United Kingdom and indeed across western Europe.”

A spokesman for Eimco confirmed the offices were going to be relocated, but declined to comment further.

Colchester historian Andrew Phillips said the firm was founded by F W Brackett and three men in 1899. They set up at a former stable in Hawkins Road and moved to a host of different premises in Hythe.

The company then moved to its current home, at Severalls Industrial Estate, in 1980, where around 250 people were employed at its peak.

Mr Phillips said: “They have done lots of very important installations down the years.

“They put the screening in for the first atomic power station in this country.”

In January 2006, 50 workers lost their jobs in another round of redundancies.

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