Zotefoams is consulting on 100-plus redundancies at its Mitcham Road factory as Nike foam moves to Vietnam. The accounts, and the union's case.

Zotefoams has begun consulting on more than 100 redundancies at its Mitcham Road factory, the Croydon site it has occupied since 1935. High-volume footwear production, the foam that goes into Nike trainers, is moving to a new plant in Vietnam.

The company announced the proposals on 5 August in its half-year results, a stock market filing rather than a press release. The GMB union responded publicly a fortnight later, on 19 August.

What the company has proposed

Zotefoams is a listed company, so the detail is on the record. From its own statement:

  • The board has approved the start of collective consultation with affected employees and their representatives.
  • The consultation is expected to affect more than 100 colleagues. The company’s global workforce was 815 at the end of June.
  • Croydon would be repositioned “around materials innovation and the Group’s growing non-footwear applications”, named as industrial packaging, electric vehicles, defence and aerospace.
  • Annualised savings are put at approximately £4m, with a payback period of less than one year. Direct labour accounts for around a third of that.
  • One-off costs, including redundancy, are expected to land in the second half of 2026.

The company is explicit that nothing is settled: “The proposals, and any decision to implement them, remain subject to consultation; no decisions on individual roles will be made until it has concluded.”

Three things are driving it, on the company’s account: continued investment in automation, the planned transfer of high-volume footwear production to Vietnam over 2026 and 2027, and greater use of its factories in Poland. Together, it says, these “are expected to leave UK capacity and fixed costs above the requirements of the business at anticipated demand levels”.

The Vietnam plant is on track for trial production from October 2026. The first autoclaves are on site.

The numbers behind the decision

Zotefoams is not losing money. In the six months to 30 June 2026 it reported:

  • Group revenue up 23% to £95.2m, from £77.4m
  • Adjusted operating profit up 34% to £16.3m, from £12.2m
  • An interim dividend up 5.2% to 2.63p a share, payable on 5 October

The part of the business Croydon depends on moved the other way. Footwear revenue fell 23%, from £37.0m to £28.5m. The company calls this a normalisation after exceptional demand in 2025, and expects footwear volumes to be lower again through the second half of 2026 and into 2027, before recovering from 2028 as Vietnam scales up.

There is a second squeeze inside that. Footwear is shifting from supplying flat foam sheet to supplying 3D preforms. During the changeover, sheet volumes run down before the preform work ramps up.

Bar chart comparing Zotefoams half-year figures for 2025 and 2026: group revenue up from 77.4 to 95.2 million pounds, footwear revenue down from 37.0 to 28.5 million, and adjusted operating profit up from 12.2 to 16.3 million.
Group revenue and profit rose while footwear, the line made in Croydon, fell. Graphic by Croydon Today.

The union’s case

The GMB called on the company to rethink on 19 August. Helen O’Connor, a GMB membership development officer, said:

“Zotefoams is not a failing company. They increased profits last year by 34 per cent. Despite this they are abandoning the workers in Croydon who are responsible for this success.”

She added that “these are high-quality manufacturing jobs, the type the country is crying out for”, said some staff had worked there for many years, and said the union would press government and local politicians to intervene.

One point of precision on that 34%. It is the increase in adjusted operating profit for the half year just reported, not for last year. Zotefoams’ 2025 full-year results show adjusted operating profit up 26% to £22.8m, on revenue up 7% to £158.5m. Pre-tax profit rose from £0.2m to £20.0m. The union’s broader point, that this is a profitable company, holds on either figure.

Ninety-one years on Mitcham Road

Zotefoams’ own history records that the business moved to Croydon in 1935: “In 1935 the company moved to a former cable works in Mitcham Road, Croydon, where Zotefoams headquarters and main manufacturing site are still located today.” The registered office is 675 Mitcham Road, CR9 3AL.

The company is not leaving. Its Global Innovation Hub is being built on the same site, with most long-lead equipment ordered and renovation works under way, and it says it is developing UK and European aerospace work from Croydon. The proposal is to make the site smaller and more specialised, not to close it.

What it means for you

If you work there. Collective consultation is a legal process, not a formality. Under the government’s redundancy rules, where an employer proposes 100 or more redundancies at one establishment within 90 days, consultation must start at least 45 days before the first dismissal takes effect. It has to cover ways of avoiding the dismissals, reducing the number, and mitigating the effects. Redundancy terms, alternative roles inside the group and the selection pool are all things representatives can raise. Employees with two years’ service qualify for statutory redundancy pay as a minimum; anything above that is a matter for the consultation.

If you are a supplier or a nearby business. The timetable to watch is the second half of 2026, when the company expects the one-off costs to fall, and October 2026, when Vietnam begins trial production.

If you are looking for work in the borough. Croydon’s claimant count stood at 16,835 in July, and we broke it down ward by ward in Croydon’s claimant count for July.

We will follow the consultation to its conclusion. Nothing published so far names a closing date for it.

Sources