‘A sad time’ as staff prepare for the closure of Cooper Tires

ONE year on since the announcement that Cooper Tires is to close its factory site after 132 years of tyre production in Melksham, employees have told Melksham News of their sadness as they prepare for its final closure in December. 

The Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, Europe announced in October 2022, plans to phase out the Melksham site, leaving 350 staff on notice of redundancy, saying that the company struggled to remain competitive. For over a century, the factory has been a common thread weaving through generations, with many townspeople working at the site or having family or friends who are employed there. 

“It is a really sad time for the factory to close,” says employee, Tom Price, “I have got quite a lot of family history there. I know most people in Melksham knew someone or had someone in their family who worked there. There will be a big hole in the community. It felt like Cooper Tires [also known as the Avon] were known throughout the South West. People travelled from Bath, Swindon, Devizes and all over the area just to come to work here.  

“Even the chimneys are part of the town’s landscape. It will be odd when they go and that will be a change for Melksham. A lot of how the Avon used to work was people getting jobs by recommendation, that was always a big bonus. I got five or six of my friends in and we’re all still there now. 

“In the Avon itself, it is quite a community. When you work together you have your breaks together and because there’s so many people, it’s like its own little town. There will be people that I’ve worked with for the last nine years that I probably won’t ever see again. When I was 23, I would be having a break with a 55-year-old. The Avon was always a job for life. The company has been really good to us.” 

Paul Clarke, who has worked at the Avon in Bath Road for 44 years said, “This town has been built on the Avon, other industries as well, but this by far being the biggest. When I started here in 1979, there was about 3,500 people working here and a lot of them were ladies. A lot of people forget how many ladies worked here, doing all the trimming of all the rubber goods. There were nans and grandads from all over the town throughout the years. 

“My father worked here, he worked here for about 36 years, it was part of the reason why I got the job was through him. I had a job at Westinghouse but my dad spoke to one of the managers in here and that was it. You had interviews, but if people knew of you, that’s how you often got a job. I never ever regretted working here, it’s been absolutely fantastic.” 

“I think the closure of the site will affect Melksham’s younger generation in the sense more of them will have to travel out of the town for work. I feel for them.” 

Discussions around what will happen with the site and how it will be re-developed have been ongoing. Local people have the opportunity to say how they would like to see the site redeveloped in the current consultation of the town and parish council’s Neighbourhood Plan, which will help re-shape Melksham’s future.  

At a Melksham Town Council meeting in March, cllr Jon Hubbard also proposed the town council could look to fund a town museum to form part of the site when it is redeveloped, in order to preserve some of the company’s industrial history for future generations.