1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224 
Giant Norfolk Line closes Hythe depot
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Haulage giant Norfolk Line has been forced to close its Hythe depot with the loss of 40 jobs, including 25 drivers.
The decision, which comes into effect on 29 March, was announced in writing to the operation's employees.
According to Norfolk Line, the closure came down to a failure to achieve sustainable profit levels, despite strenuous efforts over the last 12 months.
Norfolk Line's managing director Eddie Green says trading was severely impacted by the foot and mouth crisis, and it never fully recovered.
He adds: "There is business there, but we need to reduce overheads to compete. We have very good people working here, but the market is extremely tough."
Existing business will be distributed across the firm's other depots and Green says it will endeavour to find work for Hythe's employees where. possible.
One driver says the news was not a huge shock: "There have been a lot of problems in the last year; I think they bit off more than they could chew."
He adds: "it's almost like an end of an era. They have given us a fairly good redundancy package; I'm not worried about finding more work."