Polaroid closes Scottish plant

Polaroid’s Scottish factory closed its doors for the final time earlier this month, leaving a 50-year legacy in the local Dumbarton area.

Parent firm Safilo announced in 2016 that production at the Vale of Leven facility would be wound down, with manufacturing of sunglasses, reading glasses and frames transferred to China.

A total of 107 jobs have been lost as a result of the closure. At the factory’s peak in the 1980s, it provided work for more than 2,000 people.

Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie said: ‘Polaroid has been a constant presence in the town for many years, employing generations of local people, so it is very sad to see the factory close.