REMPLOY

Remploy was Europe’s largest employer of disabled people.   After the Second World War the Government opened Remploy factories in areas of high unemployment.  At one time there were nearly one hundred factories across the UK employing thousands of severely disabled people. In the early days many were ex military personnel from the Second World War.  There was a factory in Hartlepool for nearly sixty years. The first unit employed about fifty people making kitchen cabinets and doing packaging work. In 1975 a much larger factory was built on the same West View Industrial Estate.  By then, many of the ex military people had retired.  For the next 32 years the factory specialised as a sub contractor in mechanical and electrical assembly and packaging. The workforce increased to over a hundred people.Many of the companies which provided work were multi national e.g. Black & Decker, Electrolux, Flymo, Philips, GEC, Thorn’s etc.  In the 1990s the Regional Office for Remploy Manufacturing and Packaging was based at the factory covering the North of England and Scotland and increasing the workforce to over 120 people.  The workforce had an excellent reputation for quality, commitment and flexibility but with major customers moving their manufacturing units out of the UK, customers became very difficult to find. When the factory closed earlier this year Hartlepool and South Easington lost 75 jobs for disabled people.