Nearly 100 jobs to be axed at Newtown company

Nearly 100 jobs could be lost at a Newtown company, it has been announced.

Control Techniques tonight (Thursday) said it was proposing to make 98 jobs redundant at its Newtown factory at the Mochdre Industrial Park in response to "the  fragility of the global supply chain exposed by the pandemic."

The company said it had taken on additional staff after the pandemic due to demand for its products. But it now needed to return to pre-Covid levels.

It also said it was now manufacturing in areas close to customers in Asia and North America.

A statement said: "In response to both the fragility of the global supply chain exposed by the pandemic and sales growth in Asia and North America, Control Techniques has been making investments to rebalance their global operational footprint to improve service levels by taking product manufacturing closer to the customers."

Martyn Cray, Vice President of Global Operations, said: “The drives market has been incredibly unpredictable in recent times with customers taking defensive actions as a reaction to insecurities in supply. This has made production capacity planning extremely difficult. We are saddened to take these actions today and have delayed as long as possible whilst we sought confidence in the market outlook.

"We will continue to invest in our facilities and our people to support our future growth aspirations.” 

Anthony Pickering, Nidec Control Techniques President, said: “Today’s proposals are needed to help us build a more sustainable business and unfortunately cannot be delayed any longer. I know this will be a difficult and unsettling time for the affected employees and their families. 

"We will work closely with our Employee Committee and government at a national and local level to ensure we provide our employees with as much assistance and support as possible during this process.

"We are committed to being a key employer in the region and a high-quality, reliable partner to our customers both in our local markets and around the globe. We are better positioned now than ever before to serve what is a truly global market. We will continue to grow the Control Techniques business in a sustainable way through the development of high-quality, innovative products, delivered through our talented salesforce and partners into existing and emerging markets.”

The company said a consultation process would begin soon.

"The company will make every effort to achieve any possible job losses through voluntary redundancies, though it is important that critical skills are retained. A comprehensive redundancy package and outplacement support services will be made available to those affected," added the statement.