WORKERS in Kidderminster have been left shocked by the announcement of job losses at Victoria Carpets.

This morning (Friday June 23) employees at the company were told 66 jobs were likely to go after the company relocated manufacturing to two other sites.

A consultation process has begun, the company plans to continue to operate in the town and increase the size of its distribution operations at the Worcester Road site.

A member of staff who did not wish to be identified said: “People were in a state of shock, one person fainted, for a lot of people it was a huge shock.

“It has always been a good firm and always made money, this is disgusting.”

In a letter handed to staff today, the company said: “It is good business expediency as a leading, broad based group to ensure that we produce in a way that makes us as competitive as we can be, if not more so than our competitors.”

The letter goes on to say that tufting and backing functions will potentially move to other sites and this will result in a significant number of redundancies.

Victoria Carpets managing director, Phil Hartley, concludes the letter by saying “The strategic decision to make the changes here at Kidderminster is clearly very unfortunate for this site, I regret that it has come to this.”