Vestas to lower production capacity in Colorado, axe at least 300 jobs

Denmark’s Vestas Wind Systems A/S (CPH:VWS) plans to reduce its manufacturing capacity in the US state of Colorado in a move that will affect about 450 jobs across three factories there.

Vestas said in a statement today that it will consolidate its footprint in the state because of lower near-term market demand and in an attempt to beef up its Service and Construction setup, and improve executional efficiency. The company noted that 150 of the 450 impacted employees will be offered new roles in other parts of the business.

The plan envisages the consolidation of blade production to the Windsor Blades factory and the repurposing of the Brighton Blades facility into a North American headquarters for the Global Tooling business, the company explained.

About 280 employees will be laid off when blade production ends at the Brighton Blades factory and a further 170 will be affected at the Pueblo Towers and Brighton Nacelles sites.

“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,” said COO Tommy Rahbek Nielsen.

Vestas currently has four sites in Colorado alone and roughly 4,500 US workers in total.

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