Renishaw, a UK-based specialist in metal AM, is reportedly considering a potential reorganization and consolidation of its additive manufacturing business by co-locating its AM engineering, marketing and commercial activities at its New Mills headquarters in Gloucestershire, England. If the plan goes ahead, the production of AM systems will continue at Renishaw’s Miskin site near Cardiff, South Wales.
As part of this proposed consolidation of activities, the company’s site at Stone in Staffordshire would close at the end of 2019. Renishaw has therefore launched a collective consultation process with the 120 employees who would be affected by the closure. If the closure does take place, Renishaw says it will take measures to reduce the number of redundancies by relocating employees to its Gloucestershire facility. It adds that it would include relocation packages to support these employees in the event of a consolidation.
“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,” commented William Lee, Renishaw 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. 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.”
If the plan goes ahead, the Gloucestershire headquarters site will house an expanded demonstration facility, enabling customers to experience Renishaw’s broad range of industrial metrology and additive manufacturing technologies, from process development, 3D printing, finish machining and part verification.
