BKS TO CLOSE NEXT YEAR

Twenty two staff at Fugro BKS in Coleraine were given the devastating news about the job losses last week.

Rob Luijnenburg Fugro’s Director of Corporate Strategy and Communication yesterday confirmed the closure. Located at Ballycairn Road for many years, BKS was acquired by Dutch multinational company, Fugro, headquartered in Leidschendam, in 2008.

In June of this year Fugro announced a series of global redundancies and reduced the staff in the Coleraine office to just 24.

Mr Luijnenburg told The Times that since the first of the redundancies back in June, ‘the business situation had not improved’ and that the medium to long term outlook for the business was ‘bleak’.

He added: “We plan to complete current projects and simultaneously commence the wind down.

“Most of the wind down is expected to be completed before the end of the year, with the last contract finished sometime in the first half of 2015.”

BKS appears to be a casualty of the deeper global crisis facing the parent company.

Earlier this month Fugro’s share prices plunged after it emerged that they might not pay out a dividend this year.