The last of dozens of redundancies at a towbar plant will be complete by March next year.

The first round of job losses from Witter Towbars’ production plant in Deeside began on Monday with 47 redundancies.

It is expected the site will be vacated by the spring of 2018 when the final tranche work moves over to Romania.

In October, Witter’s parent company Horizon Global confirmed that it was proceeding with its proposal to close the production
plant in Deeside.

The company announced in the summer that it had plans to consider ‘a proposal in respect of strategic alternatives for its business based in Deeside to ensure a sustainable business for the Witter brand in the UK’.

As well as the 47 roles that ended on Monday a further 13 jobs are expected to have gone by Christmas.

Jo Goodchild, regional officer for Unite Wales, said: “A sad day as the first group of staff leave Witter Towbars, some of whom have been there for more than 30 years.

“The parent company Horizon Global gave notice two weeks ago that the redundancies would be issued on a staged basis.

“47 employees left on October 30 with another 13 before Christmas.

“The remaining production staff will remain on site until March 2018.

“The dignity and solidarity the Unite members have shown in the last three turbulent months has been phenomenal.

“We are hopeful that our members’ valuable skills and experience will not be wasted and some have actually secured alternative employment already.”

An offer of support by way of consultants was made by the Welsh Government to keep manufacturing jobs in Deeside.

Ken Skates, cabinet secretary for economy and infrastructure, reached out to Witter Towbars with an offer of assistance in a bid to secure the jobs but the offer was not successful.