UPDATED: Gurit has today (Tuesday) announced that it will transfer its UK prepreg business to its Spanish prepreg production facility by Summer 2018 – but it seems that the Isle of Wight factory will be unaffected by the move.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. Therefore, production will be moved to Spain in 2018.
The manufacturing of Formulated Products and the UK-based automotive components Technology Centre – based at St Cross Business Park, Newport – 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.
UPDATE @ 10:25 – It has now been revealed that up to 70 jobs could be lost in the move, but it remains unclear how many of these will be on the Isle of Wight.
Although Gurit in Newport does carry out automotive work, which are unaffected by today’s announcement, part of the factory is dedicated to prepreg.
UPDATE @ 11:09 – Gurit has confirmed that 70 jobs will be lost at their Newport factory as part of the restructuring.
230 other jobs at Gurit on the Island remain secure.
