Plymouth-based Kawasaki Precision Machinery, a supplier of specialist hydraulic equipment, is making 48 of its 300 workers redundant amid fears of a global downturn in sales.
The company (
www.kpm-eu.com) said earlier this month that it has been left with no choice but to ‘restructure’ the workforce at its Plymouth factory and begin official talks with all those affected.
The directors said in a statement to Plymouth Live that there had been a steep reduction in sales orders, “with many of our main export markets — such as oil and gas, construction and marine — currently in decline”.
The company said it had been hampered by decisions taken by clients to “downsize or close their operations”, due to “general economic slowdown and difficult trading conditions around the globe” that are not expected to ease in the near future.
Lee Crocker, Kawasaki Precision Machinery executive director, said: “Until now, we have avoided job losses in the hope that certain markets would return to some level of normality, but it is now clear that our key markets will remain depressed through 2019 and into 2020.
"Although our sales activities have identified several new opportunities, which we are confident will return the business to growth in the longer term, these will not come through the pipeline in time to offset the current drop in demand from our current customer base.”
The factory has been manufacturing 7,500 Staffa motors and 23,000 axial piston pumps per year, and 85% of these are
exported world-wide.
The Staffa business accounts for 65% of the global radial-piston market for marine applications.