As the industry began its journey back to work, VEKA was refreshingly honest about some of the hard decisions they needed to make in the weeks and months to come. They confirmed that jobs were going to be lost and that a mix of the pandemic and Customade and Sash UK going bust had affected them. They won praise from myself and much of the industry that are on social media for their upfront approach and straight-to-the-point talking.

VEKA announced today their results, confirming that sadly 25 jobs have been lost. There is a silver lining, however, in that good business performance since reopening has reduced the predicted 78 redundancies to 25.

This is their statement in full:

Following the announcement that Burnley based uPVC window system company VEKA plc planned to launch a consultation process, the business has now concluded this process and can confirm that 25 jobs have been made redundant.

Having taken all available actions to ensure VEKA plc remains a successful and sustainable business, the effects of the pandemic resulted in the business failure of two important customers. This has had a substantial impact, forcing the business to review their ongoing requirements to reflect the loss of business.

David Jones, Managing Director of VEKA plc briefly outlines; “Having started the process on Monday 15th June, establishing an employee elected committee responsible for taking group redundancy consultations, we have followed it to its conclusion. Fortunately, throughout the process, working with our committee, we were able to reduce the impact from an estimated redundancy of 78 roles to 25. This equates to 6.5% of our workforce and reflects the new scale of the business.”

Conducting the process in an ever-changing environment resulted in VEKA plc taking a phased approach to the redundancies. Phase one redundancies represented roles that the business could not foresee and short-medium term relief from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and have now been completed. Phase two roles were those roles that were dependent on seeing positive sales upturn in July; focussing specifically on the operational needs of the business to support the manufacturing demand. Due to a strong result in July and a more positive overall industry outlook in the coming months, VEKA plc will no longer proceed with Phase 2 redundancies.

As a family business and part of their S.P.I.R.I.T. values, VEKA plc continues to support those affected by redundancy by offering outplacement support and extending wellbeing packages for a number of months following each individuals’ leave date. Equally supporting those employees managing the redundancy process, ensuring they were fully trained to undertake these unfortunate consultations.

“This isn’t the first time that VEKA plc had to make some tough decisions in order to weather a storm and I recognise that COVID-19 continues to impact communities and may, in turn, have further impact on business. Although I’m saddened that this has resulted in losing valued employees, by adapting and acting responsibly to ensure the sustainable success of the business, VEKA plc is not just here for now, but for the future and for life.” continued Dave Jones, Managing Director of VEKA plc.

Although it’s sad to have to lose any number of jobs, the positive to take from this, on the whole, is that it has not been as bad as first thought. Though again its refreshing to see that the business recognises that COVID-19 is likely to bring further disruption, which if we’re all honest with ourselves is the likely scenario.

All being well, the business can re-hire people for new positions as soon as possible and look forward to strong growth plans once the worst of the pandemic and the economic instability are behind us.

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