Railway engineer Jarvis announces job losses following poor trading figures released yesterday

Railway engineer Jarvis has announced it is to shed 450 jobs following poor trading results in the year ending 31 March 2009.

Based in York, Jarvis plc focuses on providing the highest quality and safest products and services within the rail, plant, freight and facilities management sector.

According to the statement released with the figures, the company is attributing the poor results to an “underperformance within the rail and freight container business”. As the main contractor to Network Rail, they have also seen a reduction in the demand for the supply of On Track Machines (OTM). 

The company plans to restructure with the resulting loss of 450 jobs, through redundancies, and a one-off adverse profit impact of £8 million in the current financial year.

The restructuring deals are yet another blow to the UK’s struggling economy, which saw unemployment figures pass the two million mark in January. 

Steven Norris, Executive Chairman of Jarvis plc, said: “It has been a painful process to absorb the impact of Network Rail’s sudden reduction in workload, but I am confident that by taking the necessary steps early the company can look forward to improved work volumes in 2010 and beyond.”