A renewable energy firm in Argyll and Bute has announced it will cut up to three-quarters of its workforce, despite recording pre-tax profits of £7.1 million last year.
CS Wind, based near Campbeltown, said up to 73 jobs could be lost among its 94 employees.
It is the only UK facility manufacturing onshore and offshore wind towers, with the factory bought over by the South Korea-based firm in 2016.
1/4 Unite has reacted furiously to the latest job losses in Scotland’s renewables sector at CS Wind. The company employs 94 workers. 73 jobs will go, 3/4 of the workforce, at its factory in Campbeltown, Argyll, the only UK facility manufacturing onshore and offshore wind towers. pic.twitter.com/aaE4efSuvw
— Unite Scotland (@UniteScotland) October 30, 2019
Charlie Macdonald, Unite regional industrial officer, said: “The news of the redundancy notices affecting three-quarters of the workforce at CS Wind in Campbeltown is a major blow to Scotland’s renewables manufacturing capacity.
“CS Wind is another example of the spaghetti bowl of multi-national interests calling the shots in our nation’s renewables sector with scant regard for workers and communities.
“There needs to be urgent intervention by the Scottish Government because if the scale of these job losses goes unchallenged, not only is there a major cloud over the future of the factory in Campbeltown but also over Scotland’s green manufacturing capacity.”
Accounts lodged by the company in April show directors saw the future outlook for the next financial year as “positive”.
It posted pre-tax profits in 2018 of £7.1 million – up from a loss of £191,000 in 2017.
The business has made a £27 million investment in the facility since taking over, while also having deals with Danish firm Orsted and Swedish company Vattenfall.
It has blamed the move on challenging market conditions for onshore towers and difficulties with supply chain companies in the offshore sector.
The next potential order for the offshore build schedule is in 2020, it said.
A CS Wind spokeswoman said: “CS Wind UK is actively working with Unite the union, Argyll and Bute Council, Highland and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Engineering and the Westminster and Scottish governments on finding effective solutions and to support the workforce and wider local community impacted by this announcement.”
Scotland’s energy minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “This will be a very difficult time for those workers served redundancy notices at the CS Wind tower facility in Machrihanish.
“I have spoken with CS Wind UK management and committed to do all we can to support the company in their attempts to secure future work for the site.
“We have also been working with Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Argyll and Bute Council to support infrastructure investment locally in an effort to enhance infrastructure of the site.”
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel