SKF, the leading knowledge engineering company, has announced that due to a significant year-on-year fall in sales for its specialised engineering products it may have to consider making a number of redundancies at its manufacturing centre in Luton.
The company is currently in consultation with the workforce and unions at the Luton plant and is exploring ways to minimise the affect of possible redundancies. This includes an extension to the recently introduced short-time working arrangements, together with the option of reducing the number of employees through natural wastage and voluntary redundancies.
The company's UK Managing Director, Sharon Smith, explains that, "Although SKF is a global knowledge engineering business, with a diversified portfolio of products and services, we are not immune from the turmoil over the last twelve months in world markets. In particular, our year-on-year volume demand has fallen by around 29% and although there are now signs that the decline in sales may be levelling off, we do not anticipate a significant improvement in overall market conditions for some time".
Sharon Smith continued, "We have been working closely with our workforce in Luton to minimise the impact of these changes in market conditions and as a result have so far been able to protect a number of jobs that might otherwise have been lost. Unfortunately, the continuing slowdown in demand for the specialised engineering products produced in Luton means that we now have little option but to consider a wider programme of redundancies, in order to protect the long term viability of the operation".
The consultation period will run until the beginning of September but could result in the redundancy of up to 34 employees from the factory workforce of 264. "We will do our best to find ways of avoiding this situation and anticipate the continuing cooperation of employees and unions", added Sharon Smith.
SKF has been manufacturing bearings and other specialised products in Luton since 1911, with production at its current site in Sundon starting just before the Second World War. The UK operation was the first of many to be established outside of the company's home base in Sweden and, over the years, has expanded and contracted as the needs of the business and the markets that it serves have changed. Today, the core activity is the manufacture of SKF Explorer spherical roller bearings and CARB toroidal roller bearings, which are typically used in heavy engineering industries such as paper, metals and construction.
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