Factory to axe half its employees

A 174-year-old textile firm in Cumbria has announced it will make half of its workforce redundant.

Workers at Stead McAlpin & Co were told on Wednesday that 62 of the 124 posts would go at the Carlisle factory.

The specialist textile printers and dyers based at Cummersdale Print Works, has gone into administration.

A spokesman for administrators Begbies Traynor said they were seeking a sale as a going concern which would safeguard the remaining jobs.

Stead McAlpin was sold by John Lewis to Apex in 2007.

Trevor Allison, a former managing director of the factory, said: "I am not altogether surprised given the current state of the economic climate, but I am greatly saddened at this turn of events.

"I left seven years ago after 47 years with the company, and know almost everyone there. I know what a shock it has been for them."

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