Wiltshire bra firm to cut jobs

8:34am Wednesday 3rd December 2008

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Voluntary redundancies have been made available to staff at another of Swindon’s top firms.

Triumph International, based in Arkwright Road, has offered seven per cent of its 283-strong workforce the option of redundancy, just a day after union chiefs claimed that Honda was planning to cut 1,000 jobs at its South Marston factory.

The company said it was also implementing a freeze on recruitment and pay, while the 20 staff offered redundancy had also been sounded out about a shift to part-time work.

Triumph said it was offering redundancy packages “well in excess of industry norms” to employees who accepted the offer.

A company statement said that while the redundancies were "difficult to take", Triumph had made every effort to avoid dismissals and keep hardships for employees as low as possible.

A spokesman for the underwear giant said: “We are reacting to exceptional trading conditions.

“Our costs and operations will be kept under constant review so we maintain efficiency and strength in the market place.

“The planned measures are designed to achieve just this while refraining from actual lay-offs.

“Given our company’s heritage and the design, quality, fit and value of our products, Triumph is better placed than many to hold its own and to continue to drive business forward.”

Triumph International is one of the world’s largest underwear manufacturers and sells its core brands Triumph, Sloggi, Valisère and HOM in more than 120 countries.

It also employs a total of 43,000 people worldwide and had a turnover of 2.5billion Swiss Francs last year.

Triumph International began by making corsets, but was manufacturing bras when most women weren’t even sure what a bra was.

The company, regarded as a world leader and still family owned, was established in Germany in 1896 and its popular products were first sold in Britain eight years later.

It opened its first Swindon factory, at Cheney Manor, in the late 1950s.

Later it acquired a second at Stratton and at one time was employing hundreds of Swindon women as sewing machinists.

Only recently the Doreen bra, which is Triumph’s biggest seller, celebrated its 40th birthday.