Renishaw considers Staffordshire facility closure in AM business reorganisation
September 7, 2019
Renishaw, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, UK, is evaluating a potential reorganisation of its Additive Manufacturing business with the proposed co-location of its AM engineering, marketing and commercial operations at its headquarters in Gloucestershire, UK. If this consolidation of operations is to go ahead, it will see the closure of the company’s site in Stone, Staffordshire, UK, at the end of 2019.
The company explained that, in the proposed move, its Gloucestershire headquarters would house an expanded demonstration facility, enabling customers to experience its range of industrial metrology and manufacturing technologies covering process development, Additive Manufacturing, finish machining and part verification.
“We have invested heavily in all aspects of AM system design and are very pleased with the market adoption of the RenAM 500Q multi-laser machine,” stated William Lee, Renishaw’s Chief Executive. “We have exciting plans for future systems that will further boost the adoption of AM for series production, but in a competitive global business we need to be agile and efficient in how we bring these new technologies to market.”
“Our current thinking is that the most effective way to achieve this would be for our AM technical and commercial teams to be co-located in our Gloucestershire facilities,” he added. “The AM team at the Stone site has made a major contribution to our progress and we sincerely hope that a large number of them would relocate to our headquarters site if the closure goes ahead.”
Renishaw has reportedly begun a collective consultation process with 120 affected employees at the Stone facility. The manufacturing of AM systems is expected to continue at the company’s Miskin site near Cardiff, UK.
