EADS To Sell Six EU Factories

The parent company that owns Airbus, EADS, has today announced that it plans to sell six of its main production plants to rivals from across Europe, in a move designed to cut costs and help focus its core business in light of the continually falling dollar which has hurt profit margins for the company.

The factories to be sold will be those from Filton in England, the Varel and Augsburg plants in Germany, as well as two in France and the flagship Nordenham plant, which will see the company significantly scale down its production capacity in order to cut back on expenses and increase inefficiency through its main operative functions.

The plants up for sale currently provide jobs for almost 10,000 workers, and it is thought that these jobs will remain for the most part when the changeover occurs, with GKN, MT Aerospace and Latecoere named as frontrunners to purchase the sites throughout Europe.

EADS has had to endure a rough twelve months with intesne scrutiny arising from alleged insider dealing and the problem of a rising Euro currency, which pushes up its euro-based production costs whilst devaluing dollar based sales revenue. It is thought that the sell off will help raise capital and reduce the overall operating costs of the company, with a view to increasing profitability through 2008.

The Filton plant, based in Bristol, is to see only its manufacturing side sold off, which will impact upon 1,800 of its technical employees. However it is thought that the transfer will not have an adverse effect on the employment prospects or job security of those currently working for the plant, which looks as though it may become owned by British based GKN.

It remains to be seen whether the Airbus attempts to reduce overall costs will help boost profitability, and indeed whether it will be able to negotiate through the sale of its six European sites.

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