The US parent of Midlands manufacturer Aga Rangemaster is to close the company’s historic foundry in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, with the loss of 35 jobs.

It was announced at the end of May that the foundry, which had been casting the firm’s products for 70 years, is no longer viable; some foundry operators will be moved to other roles.

Aga has consulted with union officials and says “everything possible” is being done to mitigate the impact of any compulsory redundancies.

Middleby Corporation acquired Aga Rangemaster — famed for its range cookers — in 2015, and there has been a scaling back of the business since then.

Illinois-based Middleby (its main business is food services) paid £129 million for the Shropshire company; its factory at Ketley will be kept open, with iron for the Aga ovens assembled there being sourced from foundries across the UK and the EU that are not part of the Aga Rangemaster group.

In the first quarter of the new financial year Middleby achieved net sales of about £398 million, with ‘earnings’ of £54.6 million.