AgustaWestland UK to Consolidate
(Source : GKN plc. ; issued Jan. 10, 2002)
AgustaWestland, the 50:50 joint venture between GKN and Finmeccanica, today announced the consolidation of its UK operations on its site at Yeovil, Somerset and a reduction in the workforce.
This reduction will take effect from mid April 2002 and was anticipated as AgustaWestland progressively completed its two major UK military orders for 66 EH101 and 67 Apache helicopters.
AgustaWestland has achieved considerable success in Europe and is now preparing the way for the entry of the EH101 into the US market in conjunction with Lockheed Martin. Against this background, UK deliveries of the EH101 are now substantially complete and Apache production is well advanced.
AgustaWestland needs therefore to reduce UK employee numbers by 950 from the current total UK workforce of 5,250. The majority of the reduction will be at the Yeovil site but will also involve the closure of the site at Weston Super Mare and the transfer of its operations to Yeovil. It is hoped that much of the reduction can be achieved on a voluntary basis.
Redundancy and reorganisation costs of approximately £22 million will be met by AgustaWestland and are in line with assumptions made at the time of the formation of the joint venture. GKN will charge its share of the costs of approximately £11 million to operating profit in the first half of 2002.
Marcus Beresford, Chief Executive of GKN, said: “It was always foreseen that helicopter output in the UK would peak at this time as a result of the delivery profile of the EH101 and Apache programmes. The job losses announced today are clearly very regrettable but are necessary to retain the high levels of operational efficiency which have been achieved in the UK.
“AgustaWestland have been very successful in delivering the UK EH101 and Apache programmes. They have been equally successful in winning major export business which has continued to underpin the strength of the long term order book. This currently stands at more than £4.5 billion excluding the recent awards from Portugal and Denmark which are yet to be fully defined.”
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