Cummins to make a fifth of Stamford staff redundant

Cummins Generator Technologies announced yesterday that it was proposing to make 148 employees redundant across its Stamford and Peterborough sites.

Although Cummins has refused to confirm numbers, the Mercury understands this is about 100 staff from a team of 466 at the Stamford branch in Barnack Road, and the remainder from the Peterborough site in Lynch Wood, which employs 224 people.

In a statement released by Cummins, it said that the decision was because its costs were now “at unsustainable levels” due to “worsening conditions”.

It added: “We have been reducing costs and slowing or cancelling many programmes for several years and unfortunately, we now have to take more significant actions to better align our costs with current and forecasted sales.”

It said it had expected “some markets to stabilise” in the second half of this year but “conditions have actually deteriorated and we expect these challenging conditions to persist and for 2016 to be worse than this year”.

It went on to say it was reducing its workforce by 2,000 worldwide with staff going from all businesses and functions.

A consultation process is now underway with representatives and the affected employees will leave the company by the end of the year, with employees given the opportunity to leave voluntarily.

The statement added: “This is difficult for our employees, difficult for our communities and difficult for our company but necessary to ensure our long-term success.

“Taking action now can ensure we emerge stronger when markets return, just as we’ve done before. Again this is a difficult time, and we are grateful to our employees for their contributions, and remain committed to our local communities of Stamford and Peterborough.”

Stamford and Bourne MP Nick Boles (Con) said he was disappointed to hear the news. He said: “The loss of so many jobs at the Cummins plant is a bad blow for Stamford - and will be devastating for those concerned. Fortunately, the local economy is growing well and lots of new jobs are being created.

“My priority will be to work with Cummins management, the Jobcentre and New College Stamford to ensure those affected get all the training and support they need to find new opportunities.”

This is not the first time in recent years that the firm has cut its workforce. Read more at the links:

Cummins makes more job cuts.

Cummins Generator Technologies to cut 95 jobs.

Cummins pledges to keep manufacturing in Stamford.