Senvion Swings Job Axe

German wind turbine manufacturer Senvion plans to cut 780 jobs mainly at its facilities in Husum, Trampe and Bremerhaven in an effort to ”make the company competitive again.”

The company said it will meet with employees’ representatives as soon as possible to begin the negotiations. Senvion hopes to agree on a mutually acceptable balancing of interests, and a severance scheme that will make its decision socially compatible.

The layoffs are part of a restructuring programme to identify excess costs across the entire company, opportunities to reduce overcapacity in production, and invest in research and development, new technologies as well as the quality of the company’s products and services, Senvion said.

“We are setting the ground work for the successful future of the company,” said Senvion CEO Jürgen Geissinger.

“There is no alternative to decisive changes in order to secure the long term competitiveness of our company with 4,100 employees. Senvion in recent years has developed new products, improved processes, and made the required investments. Now we have to follow through on our strategy and pave the ground for future global growth.”

The programme is part of the company’s overall strategy that the management will detail when the company presents 2016 financial results.

Senvion already announced plans during the IPO to boost operating results, the company said.

The programme is expected to put Senvion on a path of profitable growth in a difficult environment where wind turbine makers are under strong price pressure and are dealing with a shift in demand from established markets to growth regions in South America and Asia.