EMI forced to close Hayes hub
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• As consumers switch from vinyl records to CDs and cassettes EMI has been forced to shut its 10,000m distribution hub at Hayes and move to a smaller base in the Midlands.
Its main carriers, Securicor and Allport Installations, are uncertain how this will affect their operations.
EMI's new hub, at Learning-.
ton Spa, will open next spring. Securicor will move product from factories in Swindon and Hayes to Leamington where it will be broken down into smaller packages for shop deliveries. Securicor's marketing manager Anthony Lock believes that drops to shops will be unaffected because although packages will be smaller, deliveries will be as frequent. "Where we may see a change in the number of vehicles required is in the collection of stock from the factories," says Lock, "but the work is highly seasonal anyway with a Christmas peak."
Allport Installations, based in Langley, Bucks, runs six vehicles out of Hayes. The company says it is prepared to follow the work to its new location and is meeting EMI next month to discuss its future.
The contract is worth £200,000 a year and divisional director Mike Byrne says he is "very keen" to keep the business. "It remains constant in times of recession," he says. "People buy a record to cheer themselves up."
The Leamington depot, on a greenfield site, will employ 140; half the number needed at Hayes.
"The current building was put up in the days when the single was the industry's base," says Jim Leftwich, managing director of EMI Music Services.