200 jobs to go as fit-out firm restructures

A BLACK Country fit-out firm which counts Asda and Pizza Hut among its clients is set to axe 200 jobs.

Alan Nuttall Partnership, which has operations in Dudley and Hinckley in Leicestershire, has announced what it called “a major restructuring exercise” in order to focus on the profitable parts of the business.

The firm is planning more than 200 redundancies across the two sites although it is not clear at this stage how many roles are affected in Dudley.

It employs around 100 people in Hinckley, where its hot food counter and sign operations are based, and a further 400 people in Dudley, home of its main shopfitting operation.

The company announced in March it was planning 52 redundancies.

Alan Nuttall Partnership specialises in interiors and display services from design through to manufacture and installation for clients in sectors such as retail, commercial property, hospitality and food service.

The company said it had been hit by the closures of high street shops and the hesitation by traditional retailers to open new branches.

It added in a statement that the “seemingly unstoppable growth of supermarkets” was coming to an end and large retailers were no longer opening several new shops per year.

Managing director Nino Calandra said: “It is our intention to downsize and re-shape the business to reflect the shrinking retail sector.

“Sadly, we have no option. We need to do this to live to fight another day.

“Earlier in the year, we made a number of redundancies and restructured some areas of our company to make improvements to our business.

“We have invested time and resource to try and move into new sectors to reduce our dependence on the retail sector but sadly this doesn’t happen overnight although we hope we will see the benefits of these actions in the near future.”