Jimi Heselden's Hesco to cease manufacturing in Leeds, cut 43 jobs and relocate production to Poland

Hesco, founded 30 years ago by legendary Leeds entrepreneur Jimi Heselden, has confirmed that the firm will close its production and assembly lines in Leeds and relocate the functions to Poland.

Around half a dozen Hesco staff will be retained in Leeds for sales and marketing but the 43 jobs in manufacturing will be cut.

The Yorkshire Post revealed in June how Hesco’s current owners Praesidiad were contemplating shifting production to Eastern Europe. A spokesperson for the firm told this newspaper that the Leeds wing of the business had seen a decline in activity in recent years and that the Covid-19 crisis had exacerbated this.

A Hesco spokesman told The Yorkshire Post: “We have regrettably decided that we have to close production and assembly at our Leeds site at the end of October.

“This is due to the significant variations and decline of orders at Hesco in recent years and brought into sharp focus by the Covid-19 crisis.

“The affected employees are being offered full support and training to help them secure alternative employment.”

The move brings an end to three decades of manufacturing from Hesco in Leeds.

Founded by Mr Heselden, the firm grew from a small Leeds workshop to become a globally dominant player in the defence sector.

Mr Heselden developed products such as semipermanent blast walls which were deployed extensively during the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as to reinforce levees around New Orleans in the few days between Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita.

Camp Bastion in Afghanistan is named after its products.

Mr Heselden himself grew from humble beginnings to become a self-made multimillionaire.

Having left school at 15 he became a coal miner who would lose his job following the strikes of the mid 1980s.

He used his redundancy payout to found Hesco which over the years would employ hundreds of people all over the world.

A renowned philanthropist, he donated tens of millions of pounds to local charities and was awarded an OBE in 2006.

He died 10 years ago when he fell off a cliff while driving a Segway.