For those who remember it, the iconic Hoover factory in Merthyr Tydfil is set to be demolished, having been there since 1948.
The 40-acre former washing machine factory is set to be torn down and redeveloped for housing, much like the Cambuslang site was some years ago.
In its heyday, the factory employed 5,000 people and made washing machines, but production ended in 2009 with production dwindling slowly for some time prior to that and reportedly only 300 people worked there when it finally closed down.
For the past few years, the site has been used for distribution by Haier, which now owns the Candy Hoover Group, but that has also ended, leaving the site with no real purpose any longer.
It’s sad to see this factory go, like so many from a time when the UK produced appliances, but sadly, it is simply too expensive to build machines in the UK now, with very limited production of any sort of appliance left in the UK. All that remains are some low-volume, more specialised producers, and large production facilities such as this are, and have been, gone from the UK for some years.
Remembering the “good old days” is about all that’s left of appliance production in the UK.
And, the site has fallen into disrepair, leading to concern from the local community, which may be a factor in this decision to tear the old factory down, as shown here:
