Following completion of a 30-day consultation period at the end of last month, parent company Bong has decided to shut down the factory in Washington, Tyne and Wear, due to a global downturn in demand.
All 62 staff were offered redundancy packages and 18 have left the business so far under this provision. Three employees have been relocated Bong’s Milton Keynes plant.
A further 28 workers are to leave the business by the end of December, at which point John Dickinson will cease production.
A small team will remain on site to decommission the northeast plant and move machinery to Bong’s other UK factories or prepare them for sale. The process is expected to take up to three months at the start of 2013.
Bong managing director Mark Cooper said: "We have looked long and hard at the alternative options but the harsh reality is that the long term future for manufacturing at this site is simply not sustainable.
"This is undoubtedly sad news for the workforce at Washington. We will do all we can to support them through this difficult time and will be working with a range of agencies to offer them assistance for new jobs or retraining."
