Ballarat’s political and economic leaders are mourning the loss of one of the city’s most iconic businesses after Oliver Footwear announced it would cease manufacturing in the city next year.
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Oliver’s US owners Honeywell announced on Tuesday 30 employees would lose their jobs from June to September next year when manufacturing was shifted offshore and warehousing was moved to Melbourne.
Oliver Footwear was established in Ballarat in 1887 and was entirely family owned until 2011 when the business merged with Singapore shoe maker Kings Safety Footwear.
As a community we need to stand by all these workers as they go through a difficult process.
- Catherine King - Ballarat MP
Ballarat federal MP Catherine King said in a statement “to lose a business so closely linked with Ballarat over such a long period of time makes this a sad day for this town”.
“As a community we need to stand by all these workers as they go through a difficult process of finding new work and dealing with the closure of a business that has been a stalwart of our community for 130 years.”
While a Honeywell spokesperson said there would be some opportunities for employees to be redeployed in other arms of the business, none of those jobs will be in Ballarat. However Oliver’s sales and management staff will stay in the city.
Buninyong MP Geoff Howard, whose electorate takes in the Mount Pleasant factory, said he would be reaching out to workers in the coming weeks to ensure they were given opportunities to retrain or find alternative employment.
“It’s sad to see it go but it’s very hard to see a future for that component of the industry in Ballarat,” Mr Howard said.
A letter given to employees earlier this week stated “the decision was based on business factors – not the performance of the employees”.
Australian Industry Group regional manager Jim Dannock said while there was no secret Australian manufacturing was experiencing challenges, the sector still contributed about $600 million to the Ballarat economy each year.