PRICING pressure in the automotive industry as well as the closure of one business stream resulted in turnover at Glasgow-based axle-maker Albion Automotive falling by 32 per cent while losses widened by 40 per cent in the 2016 calendar year.
The firm, which is owned by US-based American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings and counts General Motors Chrysler as its largest customers, said the closure of its transfer box business at the beginning of the reporting period as well as intense pricing pressure had an impact.
“As general and industry specific conditions have improved, intense competition, volatility in fuel, steel, metallic and other commodity prices and significant pricing pressures persist within the global automotive industry,” said director Garry McFarlane.
“Some of our competitors have economic advantages compared to our business such as patents, existing underutilised capacity and lower wage and benefit costs through supply base consolidation and global sourcing”.
Despite turnover falling from £37.2 million to £25.3m and losses increasing from £2.5m to £3.5m, the company said its American owner had pledged to provide “any necessary financial support” for “the foreseeable future”.
The company, which is based in the Scotstoun area of Glasgow, is focusing on cutting its cost base and in 2016 reduced its wage bill by £1.7m after reducing its headcount by 45 to 119.
All job losses came from its production line.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here