ELECTROLUX will sever all connections with a County Durham town after announcing the final part of its operation there will close.

Two weeks after announcing a review of the facility, Electrolux yesterday said it will close its warehouse and distribution centre in Spennymoor.

When the company revealed 12 months ago that it was closing its cooker factory on the town’s Merrington Lane Industrial Estate, which employed 500 people, it said it intended to retain the warehouse centre on the site.

The centre, which employs 23 people, will close in the summer. The company said the decision was taken after an investigation by local managers and trade unions confirmed it was no longer viable.

A company spokesman said: “This type of decision is never an easy one to make, but lower sales volumes due to the global economic downturn have reduced the company’s warehousing requirements since the start of 2008.

“Employees at the warehouse will benefit from the comprehensive support package their colleagues received when our nearby cooker manufacturing factory closed earlier this year, and we are confident they will be as successful as previous leavers in finding alternative employment or retraining opportunities.”

The announcement that the warehouse was under review came days after the final 250 workers left the main plant.

A year ago, the company announced it was closing the factory and moving production to Poland.

Last night, County Durham Development Company managing director Stewart Watkins, chairman of the response group set up to help Electrolux workers find jobs, said: “We are working with Electrolux and we are looking to extend the same level of support to these workers that we have been able to give to the staff working in the cooker factory.”

Nearly a tenth of the factory’s workforce of 500 were made redundant in February, with the next 200 employees leaving in July this year.

With the final 250 employees having left, only a skeleton staff of about 12 remains.

It emerged last night that 88 per cent of workers who left in February and at the end of July are now considered “settled”, either in work, retraining or having retired.