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Michelin closes its Manchester financial shared service centre
19 August 2008:
Michelin UK has closed its Manchester shared services operation with the loss of 200 jobs. The French tyre manufacturer outsourced its European financial shared service centre to Logica, the London-quoted IT consultancy, which switched the work to Barcelona and the Philippines from the previous base at Birley Fields in Hulme.
Manchester's inward investment agency Midas said it was disappointed with the decision and had met Michelin bosses to try to understand the move. Michelin confirmed 150 people had been made redundant with a further 40 taking other jobs within the group outside of Manchester.
Midas was instrumental in attracting Michelin to Manchester six years ago and said it was hopeful some losses would be absorbed into other shared services operations in the region.
The operation in Manchester handled credit control, accounting services and invoices for 12 European countries and Midas described its arrival in 2003 as “a real coup”. The closure, which took effect last month, was not announced outside the company.
Malcolm Gresty, director of business development at Midas, said: “I have no doubt there are other opportunities across the region that will absorb those job losses. It's disappointing but it is outside of our influence because it was a global decision. It's not as if Manchester was not performing.”
According to Midas, there are 30 shared services centres in Greater Manchester accounting for 5,000 jobs, including Exxon Mobil at Salford Quays and the Royal Bank of Scotland in Spinningfields.
In May, Crain's revealed that ITV planned to open a business service centre in Manchester, creating 100 finance-related jobs and J Sainsbury is also creating 250 jobs with a shared human resources service centre in Arndale House, Manchester.
Midas admitted shared services were not always static and part of the cycle sometimes involved the departments being outsourced abroad once they had matured.
But it stressed that apart from the situation at Michelin this had not happened in Greater Manchester and there were still benefits in attracting shared services here because they often pulled in other departments.
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Source: Crains Manchester Business
