Gas Prices Close Plant

High gas prices have been blamed for the closure of the Lewis & Towers specialist glass packaging factory at Edenbridge. The plant, owned by Beatson Clark, employed 45 people making small quantities of mainly large wares at short lead times. It closed just before Christmas. Beatson Clark will now import niche products from Eastern Europe to replace the products previously made at Lewis & Towers. Alan Jones from Beatson Clark said, "What floored it was the rocketing of gas prices, which rose from 35p/therm to 165p/therm in a day!" "This fell back to 80p/therm, which is still way up." Changing to another fuel was not an option at Lewis & Towers, unlike Beatson Clark's Yorkshire operations which have been able to switch to oil.