Swiss engineering company, Gurit, who have a factory based on the Isle of Wight, have confirmed this morning (Tuesday) they will be reducing their Newport workforce by around 70 staff.
Lack of prepreg business
A spokesperson for the company told OnTheWight,
“Gurit today announced that it will transfer its UK prepreg business to its Spanish prepreg production facility by summer 2018.
“Following the technology change from the use of pre-impregnated fibres (prepregs) to infusion technology for the production of wind blades in the global wind energy industry over the past 10 years, Gurit faced non-utilisation in China and Canada and underutilization of its prepreg production capacity in Europe in recent years.
“In this context, the prepreg plants in China and Canada were closed in earlier years. In Europe, the decline of the wind energy prepreg market combined with the overall demand for marine, industrial and automotive prepreg has now reached a level which suggests consolidation in one well-utilised site.”
Auto components tech centre unaffected
The spokesperson went on to say,
“The manufacturing of Formulated Products and the UK-based automotive components Technology Centre will remain unaffected from the aforementioned changes.
“Gurit will continue to maintain the technology activity for its prepreg and formulated business in the UK and continue to invest in this Tech Centre in order to retain the Company`s leading technology position, know-how, customer proximity and technical support capability.
“Gurit estimates that the restructuring and transfer cost will result in one-off costs of approximately CHF 3.9 million of which CHF 3.1 million will be effective in the 2017 fiscal year and the remainder in 2018.”
Previous job losses
2015 saw 90 job losses in the February with more later that year, as well as some earlier this year.
Our thoughts are with all those who are due to lose their jobs with Gurit.
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