Company that owns Celtic Manor Resort to cut half its workforce due to 'devastating impact' of coronavirus

The company that owns the Celtic Manor Resort has announced it will be cutting almost half its workforce - around 450 jobs - due to the "devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic."

The Celtic Collection, which consists of the resort and the International Convention Centre in the city of Newport, has been closed since 23 March when the UK entered a nationwide lockdown. It said its current financial model is not "sustainable" due to "drastically reduced occupancies and revenues."

It hosted the Ryder Cup in 2010 as well as the Nato Sumit in 2014, and is owned by Terry Matthews.

The resort consists of four hotels, a country inn, luxury lodges, two spas, six restaurants and three championship golf courses.

In 2017, funding was secured to build a 5,000-delegate conference centre on the site which opened last year.

While it is due to reopen next week, it said it will do so "under reduced capacities." It added that the number of jobs to be made redundant may reduce "significantly" should more of its facilities be allowed to reopen during the consultation period.

The GMB union said it was calling for staff there to be kept on furlough and for Sir Matthews to help save the jobs.

The Chief Executive of the resort Ian Edwards told ITV News it is an "incredibly difficult" time for their staff, and said they need create a confidence in the public to start using their services again to help save jobs.

The statement from The Celtic Collection reads, "It is clear the COVID-19 crisis will continue to have a catastrophic effect on the global economy, our nation and the travel, tourism and events industries for many months to come, and the Celtic Collection must reshape and resize its business to ensure that it is fit for the future. With drastically reduced occupancies and revenues, its current financial model is not sustainable."

"The extremely difficult decision has therefore been taken to begin the consultation stage of a redundancy programme, which at the present time is expected to result in the loss of around 450 jobs from a total permanent workforce of 995."

Welsh Conservative Member for South Wales East, Laura Anne Jones said the news highlights how the Welsh Government must re-open the tourism industry.

Labour's John Griffiths, MS for Newport said it was "disappointing" that half of the jobs are under threat.

" I very much hope these job losses can be avoided as we emerge further from lockdown restrictions.”