RECEIVER manager Grant Thornton's decision on Tuesday to shut down ACL Bearing Company will have repercussions for other Northern Tasmanian business that rely on subcontracts and other business from the company and its workers.
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Manufacturing training organisation Studentworks is just one of those.
Studentworks' general manager Justine Hill said ACL was a major customer at the centre that manufactures goods to account for 40 per cent of its turnover, with the rest covered by government funds.
She said 15 per cent of Studentworks' total sales were earned from ACL.
Ms Hill said ACL's closure next year would leave a hole in the organisation's warehouse division and a loss in much-needed training in transport and logistics.
She said ACL's closure would have a big knock-on effect in the North as it had supported other local businesses for decades.
Australian Manufacturing Workers Union state secretary John Short said it was imperative that the 136 redundant ACL workers were each retrained in federal and state government programs so they could be retained in Northern Tasmania.
Mr Short conceded that there would be limited opportunities for retrained workers to find more work in manufacturing in the North and said the government should pay more attention to the industry sector.
He said Tasmanian manufacturing workers had the lowest wages in the country, which could be advantageous in competing with other states for work.
Economic Development Minister David O'Byrne has committed to support ACL workers through the department's skills response unit, which offers job and retraining programs.
