'Shock' for paper firm staff amid closure proposal

'Shock' for paper firm staff amid closure proposalJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleCharlotte CoxSouth WestGoogleThe site has been an employer in Launceston for nearly 60 years Staff have reacted with "shock and disappointment" to the proposed closure of a packaging site which has been a major employer in a Cornish town for nearly 60 years. International paper firm DS Smith has confirmed a "proposal had been made" to close its factory on Link Road in Launceston. It said this followed a "review of UK packaging operations" amid "tough trading conditions".Cornwall Council member Adrian Parsons, Liberal Democrat, said: "I'm hearing shock and disappointment from staff - they are worried about losing their jobs and about the future." 'Enormous disappointment' Ben Maguire, Liberal Democrat MP for North Cornwall, expressed his sympathies to employees, who he said would be "really anxious and uncertain".Criticising an "anti-business" approach from the government, he said companies such as DS Smith were being "hammered".Describing job losses as a "trend across North Cornwall", he said his inbox was "absolutely flooded" with small and medium-sized businesses complaining about rises in national insurance costs and minimum wage hikes.He said such changes had been a "perfect storm" alongside the rising cost of living.Calling on the government to step in, he said Cornwall was not getting a "slice" of regional growth investment.The firm first opened as Tillotson's in 1968 and has since been through a series of takeovers, most recently by US business International Paper, which acquired the operation in January 2025.Parsons, member for Altarnun and Stoke, added: "I have friends from school who have been there all their lives for a responsible employer which always paid well and had good working hours."It's a surp...