Late Tuesday, STC Plc’s ICL Ltd announced plans to close three UK bases and eliminate 800 manufacturing jobs out of a total of 4,000 people in manufacturing – the UK headcount at ICL overall is 21,000 – but it hopes to redeploy up to 300 of the people affected. Under the plan, the office systems plant in Letchworth, Hertfordshire will close in September with the work transferring to the Series 39 mainframe plant at Ashton-under Lyne, with 660 people affected. In November, the distribution of software and literature will transfer to Stevenage, already han dling hardware distribution, affec ting 140 people. And in December, the other Letchworth plant, doing cabling and circuit boards for networked systems, will close with the work going to Kidsgrove, which already does similar work. ICL, which grew only 5% last year, says the moves are needed to maximise efficient use of its facilities and automated manufacturing techniques.
