Swiss composite maker Gurit is to cut around 10% of the workforce at its Isle of Wight subsidiary as part of a global reorganisation involving a new plant in China.
SP a division of GURIT recently secured a contract with boat-builder Seaway. Island Pulse November 7th, 2006  and successfully relocated its team of structural engineers from Southampton to Newport on the Isle of Wight in order to link engineering services closer to manufacturing. Island Pulse December 21st, 2006
The company says it plans to move from a Eurocentric operation into a customer-driven global organisation in a programme that will lead to some 45 job losses from its 450-strong workforce.
Some pre-preg production equipment will be transferred to China and some to locations closer to customers in Spain, Germany and Canada. Warehousing and logistics at its UK operation will be outsourced under the rejig, although staff involved will switch jobs to the new partner.
However, Gurit plans to expand further the prototyping facility at the former SP Systems plant at Newport and will have a new facility for finished car body parts in full production by the end of the year. Gurit (UK) will focus on new product development, some central functions as well as leading the research driven formulated epoxy resin activities.
Newport is also central to the development of Class A finish automotive body parts, a technology “believed to be a convincing new solution for the manufacture of limited car series,†the company says.
Production at Gurit’s Chinese plant in Tianjin gets underway this autumn.
Related link: Plastics and Rubber Weekly
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