Dozens of jobs AXED after Scots engineering firm closes its doors for good

DOZENS of jobs have been axed after a forty-year-old engineering firm closed its doors.

Kellwood Engineering in Dumfries ceased trading following difficulties post-pandemic.

Donald McKinnon of accountancy and business advisory firm Wylie & Bisset was appointed provisional liquidator, reports The Scotsman.

The engineering firm traded at the town’s Catherinefield Industrial Estate.

It provided services in machining, lighting consultancy and metal fabrication.

James Maitland, director of Kellwood Engineering, confirmed that 27 jobs were lost following its closure.

He said: “The reduction of work available during Covid required us to cut our workforce and, since then, a shortage of skilled time-served engineers in the area has rendered it difficult to restore employee numbers to a sustainable level.”

Mr McKinnon: “This is terribly sad to see the demise of another manufacturing business in Scotland with cheaper alternatives being found overseas. We are currently in discussions with a third party to take on part of the business and save some jobs.”

It comes as 45 members of staff lost their jobs after a Scottish pizza firm suffered difficult “market conditions”.

Pizza oven company Ooni, based in Edinburgh, said it made the “difficult” decision to let roles go in April.

A total of 75 jobs have been axed globally across the firm, with 45 of those roles based in the UK.

The company said the cuts came after difficult “market conditions” caused “a refocus” of its “strategy and structure”.

Bosses announced the devastated news to staff but added they “tried very hard to avoid this situation”.

We previously told how EnerMerch announced plans to cut five per cent of their workforce.

The worldwide engineering firm based in Scotland said in March it was planning to cut 250 jobs.

Around 120 of the redundancies will be workers in their home base of Aberdeen.

EnerMech was bought over by US-based global asset manager Carlyle Group in December 2018 in a mammoth £450million deal.