Vestas is to lower its manufacturing capacity Colorado, USA with the loss of around 450 jobs across three factories in the State.
Out of the 450 jobs lost, Vestas expects to offer new roles in other parts of the business to approximately 150 impacted colleagues.
Vestas will consolidate blades production to the Windsor Blades factory and repurpose 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 workers.
Additionally, Vestas will reduce headcount at the Pueblo Towers factory and Brighton Nacelles factories by a total of approximately 170 colleagues.
The move follows an announcement in August 2020 that production of V136 blades would cease at the factory due to reduced demand for that variant.
This reflects lower near-term market demand, according to the turbine manufacturer and comes as it seeks to strengthen its service and construction setup, and improve executional efficiency.
Vestas said the strategy would also ensure the foundation for efficient adjustments and scale-up when demand increases again.
Vestas chief operating officer Tommy Rahbek Nielsen said: “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.
“We have set initiatives in motion to make sure as many as possible of the 450 colleagues from our factories can move to other parts of our operations, but unfortunately, we still have to say goodbye to colleagues.”
The USA remains one of the world’s largest markets for wind energy and by keeping four sites in Colorado, Vestas said it is ensuring a continued strong foundation in the USA that will enable future adjustments and efficient scale-up when demand increases again.