Office reorganisation

Rehau UK has announced proposals that may lead to the closure of its Slough sales office.

The UK management team has, for some time, been actively looking at the company’s sales office footprint in the UK, and has therefore propsosed a reorganisation of its sales office functions to ensure greater customer focus, synergy across the business, and increased flexibility in covering peak demand.

The proposal is to close the Slough sales office with all administrative sales services transferring to Manchester as part of a new central sales hub.

“It is important to note that this proposal, if actioned, will not affect our external sales capability,” the company said in a release. “The employees affected are, predominantly, in support roles, with our southern region sales team transferring to remote working.”

The team in Slough has been made aware of this proposal and is now in a period of consultation with the business.

“We expect to continue to provide the normal the level of service to our customers during this period and, should the proposal be accepted, we will ensure a seamless transition occurs between current and new points of contact,” Rehau said.

“We also intend to make a number of changes to our methods of working at our Blaenau manufacturing site in Wales. The seasonality of the market for PVCU windows has proven challenging for our manufacturing processes and we are therefore proposing to change the shift pattern to enable more flexible production capability and greater utilisation of machinery.”

Rehau is also proposing to close a manufacturing facility in north Wales, which serves the PVC edgeband market across Europe. This market has been in decline since 2014, the company said. Production will be transferred to other sites.