Japan-owned UK glass factory could shut if no buyer found, risking 250 jobs
A glass factory in Wigan that produces fibreglass for electric cars and wind turbines faces closure and the loss of 250 jobs unless its Japanese owner can find a new partner or a buyer.
In the latest blow to Britain's industrial base, Nippon Electric Glass (NEG) announced a 'strategic review' of its composites business Electric Glass Fiber UK (EGF), which it expects to last approximately two months, putting about 250 jobs at risk.
NEG said that its UK composites arm had been 'facing a challenging competitive environment with high prices for raw materials, energy, and logistics costs' that had led to 'sluggish sales'.
The company added: 'This review is part of our ongoing efforts to recover performance.'
The Wigan site produces fibreglass that is used to reinforce plastic for composites found in wind turbine blades and electric cars.
It closure would put further pressure on the Labour government's industrial strategy, expected in June, which will focus on promoting growth sectors of the economy, and areas such as advanced manufacturing.
The UK's industrial companies have struggled in the face of soaring energy costs, particularly rising gas prices, since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It comes just days after British Steel announced plans to end steel-making in Scunthorpe with the closure of its two blast furnaces.
The move, described as 'devastating' by unions, will leave the UK as the only G7 country unable to make steel domestically from scratch, and is expected to result in the loss of up to 2,700 jobs.
EGF made a loss of £3.47m in 2023, according to its most recent financial accounts, compared with a profit of £7.4m in 2022.
The company said in its accounts that its profits had fallen because of 'lower customer demand resulting from competition from Chinese imports' as well as other factors including higher costs for raw materials.
Sign up to Business Today
Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning
after newsletter promotion
NEG said it would consider various options during its strategic review of the fibreglass factory, including selling the businessor 'forming strategic partnerships'.
NEG said that if it was not successful in finding a partner or a buyer, it would consider potentially closing down EGF's operations.
The Wigan site was bought by NEG in 2016, and two years later received a £15m investment from its parent company, according to local news reports.
Wigan is NEG's only manufacturing site in Europe. It has operations across its home country of Japan as well as the US and elsewhere in Asia.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Spectator
4 hours ago
- Spectator
Mark Carney, the mischief-making pin-up
Well, would you look at Mark Carney. Just three months ago I described the incoming prime minister of Canada and former governor of the Bank of England as 'a fish-out-of-water technocrat' who made little public impact over here and was swiftly forgotten after he left in 2020. When I once came across him hunched and dark-suited in the Pret queue at King's Cross, midway through his Bank tenure, I actually felt sorry for him. But here he is, beer-swigging in an Ottawa bar with Sir Keir Starmer; cutting Donald Trump short in a press call before the G7 meeting; shedding his eco-credentials to champion Canadian oil and gas; and generally looking the statesman at ease with his people. What happened? A Canadian connection tells me the answer is all to do with Carney's paternal ancestry in Ireland's County Mayo: 'He's unleashed his inner leprechaun and he's on a mission to make mischief for the big orange buffoon south of the border. What's more, the ladies think he's hot.' It makes me wonder about his charisma-free Bank of England successor, Andrew Bailey, who has barely been seen in public this year. What leap on to the world stage might he be planning for his next career? Fever in the air Would a flurry of merger-and-acquisition activity in the banking sector constitute evidence of rude health – or a cyclical warning of troubles ahead? Metro Bank, the glossy but struggling high-street challenger, is being stalked by a private equity outfit called Pollen Street Capital. Santander last month rejected an £11 billion offer for its UK network from the reinvigorated NatWest. TSB, the former Trustee Savings Bank that was sold by Lloyds to Banco Sabadell of Spain a decade ago, is for sale again with its five million customers, while Sabadell itself fights off a takeover bid from its domestic rival BBVA. All across Europe, says one LinkedIn commentary, 'bank M&A fever is in the air'. Behind all this is a growing belief that expansion by takeover might now be a better use of surplus capital than share buybacks – and will deliver economies of scale in a sector that would benefit from consolidation to fight digital disruptors. The counterargument is that all banking mergers, especially across borders (as Sabadell discovered with TSB), are fraught with management conflicts and incompatible IT systems. And ambitious bidders who claim they're building regional or global champions are too often tempted to overpay. Caveat emptor – and let's hope the regulators stay ahead of the new game. Flight risk A news story with painful implications for London's insurance market has reached a largely unnoticed turning point – though perhaps not a final conclusion – in the High Court. This is the £3.4 billion case of 147 commercial aircraft which had been leased to Russian carriers but were effectively stolen on 10 March 2022, days after Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, when Moscow legislators made it impossible for the planes to be repossessed by their lessors – of whom the largest is an Irish company, AerCap. Insurers led by Lloyd's of London refused to pay out on the lessors' 'war risks' cover, but Mr Justice Butcher has now ruled that they must, on the grounds that the loss is not a commercial matter but the result of an act of the Russian state. As indeed it was: my man who tends the Kremlin vegetable plot tells me this was a carefully pre-planned heist which won promotion for the aviation minister responsible. Meanwhile, the insurers are also being pursued in the courts of Dublin, the world capital of aircraft leasing. But the hope is that settlement will now be reached between all the western parties and their well-remunerated lawyers, while the lost fleet continues flying within Russian airspace for as long as its operators can source illicit spare parts. A curious sidelight on the way the money world works is that I happen to be a trustee of a small Yorkshire charity which is awaiting a payout of a different kind, in the form of a legacy from a deceased benefactor who happened to be a Name on some of the Lloyd's underwriting syndicates that insured the aircraft in question. So our transformational bequest will be reduced, at several removes, by the evil hand of Putin. Pottery dame In a birthday honours list on which business barely got a look in, I was delighted to see a DBE for the potter Emma Bridgewater, whose cheerful mugs and bowls fly the flag for the traditional craft of Stoke-on-Trent in defiance of foreign competition. After starting her venture 40 years ago because she could not find a cup and saucer she liked as a present for her mother, Bridgewater built it up to employ more than 450 people and achieve peak annual sales in 2022 of £38 million. But it has since fallen into losses and 'workforce optimisation', so I hope the gong encourages her to battle on. I'm confident she'll do so, having encountered her feistier side a couple of years ago in a ding-dong debate over dinner at the Aldeburgh literary festival. The trigger was a reference by me to another Stoke-on-Trent venture with a female chief: namely the Bet365 sports betting empire led by the UK's highest-paid executive, Denise Coates, who I have also occasionally praised here for her entrepreneurial thrust and whose personal pay package is a multiple of the Bridgewater company's entire turnover. Insensitively, I argued that in the evolution of 21st-century capitalism, regulated online bookmaking is as worthy as manufacturing if it brings new wealth, jobs, tax revenues and philanthropic funding to the post-industrial Potteries. The riposte was fierce, but if there's ever an opportunity for another round, I think I might add that honours, as it were, are now equal: Coates has pots of money but Bridgewater's pots have made her a Dame.
Scottish Sun
6 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Radically-improved Nissan Leaf is now a proper ‘made in Britain' EV with bigger battery, cabin & quirky nod to its maker
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) EVERY Five Guys has a sign on the wall that says: 'Today's potatoes are from . . .' Somewhere local. 5 The next 'Made in Britain' motor coming our way is the radically improved Nissan Leaf Credit: David Shepherd 5 This new Leaf has the option of a 270-mile battery or a 375-mile battery Credit: David Shepherd 5 Up front, that slick twin-screen dash has built-in Google for maps, music and more Credit: David Shepherd That makes me happy. Because not only does it mean the chips will be fresh and tasty, it's a reminder that you're backing British farming. Helping to put food on the table for someone else. It's the same with some cars. If you buy a Mini Cooper or a Toyota Corolla or a Nissan Qashqai or a Nissan Juke, you get a tasty motor first and foremost. But you also support tens of thousands of people who work in the British car industry. So everyone wins. The next 'Made in Britain' motor coming our way is the radically- improved Nissan Leaf. Now a proper long-distance family motor that happens to be electric. Rather than a fugly eco car with phish range. Nissan leaf being sold for £19,000 - but there's a catch as it's dubbed 'Nissan grief' by viewers Let's just say the original Leaf was a rubbish getaway car. You'd be better off on foot. This new one has the option of a 270-mile battery or a 375-mile battery. So you might need to charge it once a fortnight. The smooth body and flat belly help it slice through the air. Steering wheel paddles adjust the levels of braking regen to add more electrons on the go. After trying a prototype, I am pleased to say Leaf 3.0 drives nicely too. Smooth, quiet, sophisticated, fast when you want to go fast, relaxed when you don't. The new multi-link rear axle, compared to the old torsion-beam set-up, really improves ride and handling. It's actually shorter than the old car, with a smaller turning circle, so it's easier to park and manoeuvre in town. Yet the cabin is bigger. There's room for a rear-facing child seat in the back. There wasn't before. The boot is bigger and more useful with luggage dividers from a Qashqai. Up front, that slick twin-screen dash has built-in Google for maps, music and more. Bose headrest speakers direct satnav and calls to the driver's lugholes. So they don't spoil the song for everyone else. The big glass roof, with thermal protection, dims in sections. And actually increases headroom. There's lots of charging ports for devices and drink holders for your Five Guys milkshakes. Like I said, proper family car. Other observations. The 3D rear lights. I like them. Two upright bars and three horizontal bars. That's because 'two' and 'three' in Japanese sound like 'Ni' and 'San'. 5 The big glass roof, with thermal protection, dims in sections. And actually increases headroom Credit: Supplied 5 Those striking 3D rear lights aren't just for show – they spell out 'Nissan' in Japanese numbers: two (ni) and three (san) Credit: David Shepherd That's also why Nissan's legendary race cars wear the number 23. Let's hope there's a sporty Leaf NISMO further down the line because I'm told there's room for a rear e-motor to make it 4WD. For now, though, we applaud Sunderland for giving us a practical electric car we would be proud to own. It just needs a badge that says it's home-grown.
NBC News
6 hours ago
- NBC News
Honda says it successfully tested a resuable rocket
Honda's latest venture is taking it to new heights — literally. The Japanese carmaker announced Wednesday that it successfully launched and landed its own 'experimental reusable rocket.' Company officials said the roughly 21-foot-tall booster reached an altitude of 890 feet before landing again vertically. The test flight is further indication that space operations around the world are expanding into the commercial sector rather than being limited to a handful of government space agencies. The company has not yet revealed how it intends to commercialize its rocket technologies, or what the boosters could be used for, but said the research is part of Honda's efforts into 'sustainable transportation.' 'We believe that rocket research is a meaningful endeavor that leverages Honda's technological strengths,' Toshihiro Mibe, Global CEO of Honda, said in a statement. The test launch and landing occurred Tuesday at a Honda facility in Taika Town, in Japan's Hokkaido Prefecture. The flight lasted 56.6 seconds and the rocket touched down within about 15 inches of its targeted landing site, according to the company. Honda said it is next aiming to conduct a suborbital launch by 2029. Suborbital flights do not actually enter into orbit around Earth, but rather reach the edge of space at an altitude of more than 65 miles. Honda first announced its foray into the space industry in 2021, but not much is known about what types of projects are ongoing, or their potential applications. The company said the work builds on Honda's other work, including on automated driving systems. 'In today's world, vast amounts of data are consumed, with the growing expectation for greater utilization of a data system in outer space through expanded use of satellites,' company officials said in a news release. 'In light of this trend, the need for satellite launch rockets is also expected to increase in the coming years.' Reusable rockets are seen as a way to make space launches more sustainable and cost effective. SpaceX remains at the forefront of the field, with its reusable Falcon 9 rocket. The U.S. company is also developing a next-generation booster, known as Starship, that it says will eventually be fully reusable.
