Cooper Tires – The final days

COOPER Tires has officially closed, ending tyre production in Melksham after 112 years. The factory on Bath Road closed down on Wednesday 20th December. Over the decades, generations of Melksham families worked at the site.

Melksham News was given a tour of the factory on Friday 8th December and workers spoke of their sadness and pride after the last tyres came off the production line.

Peter Dixon, who worked at the factory for 36 years said, “There’s been a real sense of achievement working here over the years. It’s nice to have physically been making something. We have around 250 lockers in there and at one time they were all full up.”

Walking around the site and explaining the manufacturing process, production manager, Simon Sadler, who also worked in the factory for 36 years, said that last year, he helped make around 120,000 tyres.

“It was a noisy place and now you walk in and everything’s off, which is just sad,” said Simon. “When I started you had to know somebody who worked here, everyone was family. My dad was a friend of the old personnel manager and I got in here through that.”

Another employee, who worked at the site for 20 years said, “I was self-employed before I came in here. I wanted a bit of security. It was a very good move working in here, we’ve been looked after. When the redundancies got announced, it was like a hole in your stomach. We’ve had a year to get over it and a lot of people have got new jobs now. We hopefully won’t lose contact with the friends made in here.

“I have always worked in the curing area. It’s been fun. One of my highlights of working here over the years is when a pigeon went along on a tyre, on the conveyer belt. He went all the way along to the bottom, to the trimmer! It was very hard work, especially in the summer, it’s like an oven and in the winter it’s really cold. It’s like a ghost town now.”

Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, Europe, announced plans in 2022 to close the Melksham site saying it was no longer competitive, leaving 350 staff on notice of redundancy.

The factory has been at the heart of Melksham’s economic and cultural life for several generations, employing many thousands of people. With the factory officially closed, some members of staff will continue working, helping to wind the factory down, until summer.

Discussions around what will happen with the site and how it will be re-developed have been ongoing. Local people had 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. Consultation has now closed.

A local group has also launched a campaign to protect a large piece of land along the River Avon, which is owned by Cooper Tires, as green space. The initiative, spearheaded by the new Melksham Green Space group, aims to preserve the 38.5-acre site as a natural habitat close to the town centre.