Tyred out: Avon plant to close at the end of 2023

The Avon Tyres plant, the last remaining motorcycle tyre production facility in the UK, will close its factory in Melksham, Wiltshire next year.  

The site began making tyres in 1904, with the company expanding rapidly in the 1950s and ’60s, by which point it produced 1.5 million car and motorcycle tyres per year.

But the company’s profits have been in steady decline for 20 years. In 1993, the factory generated profits of £4.3 million. In 2020, its profits were listed at just £6873. The factory has been earmarked for closure at the end of 2023.