Vestas will reduce the headcount by approximately 450 colleagues across three factories in USA, following a decision to consolidate its footprint in Colorado,
Out of the 450 people, Vestas expects to offer new roles in other parts of the business to approximately 150 impacted employees.
Vestas will consolidate blades production to the Windsor Blades factory and re-purpose the Brighton Blades site into a North American headquarters for the Global Tooling business, consolidating from six dispersed smaller locations
This entails ending blades production at the Brighton Blades factory, which means laying off approximately 280 employees.
In addition, the company will reduce headcount at the Pueblo Towers factory and Brighton Nacelles factories by a total of approximately 170.
“The wind energy industry in USA has grown tremendously in recent years, which has increased our factories’ capacity and expanded our service business. With a larger fleet under service and lower demand in the near-term, we are therefore consolidating our setup in Colorado to ensure we can cater for our service business’ needs, and are structured in the right way to ramp up efficiently once wind turbine demand requires us to.”
Tommy Rahbek Nielsen, Vestas chief operating officer.
The consolidation and headcount reductions follow an announcement in August 2020 that production of V136 blades would cease at the factory due to reduced demand.