Unite: Shell set to end manufacturing in the UK

London – Shell is reviewing the future of its last UK manufacturing site in Stanlow, Cheshire, according to trade union Unite. The move, it said, could mark the end of the group’s manufacturing effort in the UK.

Unite has 60 members working for Shell at the UK lubricants centre in Stanlow - the country’s only producer of high-grade oils used in the defence industry

Shell, said Unite, has already sold off its last UK refinery and announced earlier this year that it is to shut its main R&D base at Thornton, Cheshire, as part of plans to shift its operations to Germany by 2014.

“There is no reason to shut the Stanlow site,” said Unite national officer, Linda McCulloch. “It is profitable and has a fantastic safety record, but it seems that Shell does not care about its UK workforce or investing in the country’s R&D or manufacturing future.

“With Shell now concentrating its research and development in Germany and other overseas centres’ it looks like manufacturing lubricants will also move overseas.”