MORE than 40 staff – some with more than 20 years’ service – have been made redundant from historic tile manufacturer Pilkington’s in Poole.

Pilkington’s Group Plc went into administration last week – and administrators KPMG closed the Poole tile factory and the factory shop on Blandford Road.

All but eight of the 45 staff were laid off in the first wave. Four more lost their jobs last Monday and another one will go next Monday.

The remainder are only staying to help the administrators fulfil customer orders and despatch the stock on site.

The news has come as hammer blow to workers. One told the Daily Echo many staff had been there decades, and one had served 47 years since leaving school.

“We didn’t see it coming,” he added. “A lot of these guys have never been in a job centre, don’t know anything about claiming benefits – they’re like lambs to the slaughter.

“There’s a lot of anger, a lot of worry about how people are going to pay mortgages and rents. We’ve all been left high and dry.”

He added: “As of yet no redundancy payments have been received, nor wages for that week.”

Paul Flint, of administrator KPMG, said they had halted production “due to the uncertain long-term customer demand for the tiles produced at the Poole site”.

He said they were “working hard to find a buyer for the factory either on a standalone basis or as part of an overall sale of the business”.

A spokesman for KPMG said staff made redundant were able to make a claim for arrears of wages, holiday pay, redundancy and pay in lieu of notice “up to certain limits”.

Pilkington’s Group Plc, the 119-year-old British tile manufacturer was once a giant of the tiling world, working with clients including Hilton, Heathrow and football stadium Old Trafford.

It employed some 380 staff nationwide. More than 200 have been made redundant so far.