Manufacturer Formaplex with sites in Portsmouth and Havant set to make more than 100 redundancies under new owner Elaghmore

Formaplex which has four manufacturing sites in Hampshire – Voyager Park in Portsmouth, Access Point in Cosham, and sites in Horndean and Havant – confirmed to The News today that it will be shedding 110 staff from its 537 work force.

It placed its entire workforce under threat of redundancy last Friday.

The company, which serves a blue-chip customer base and manufactures lightweight component solutions for tier-one automotive clients across global market sectors, was bought by UK private equity fund Elaghmore in February.

Since the acquisition, Elaghmore has already made 18 staff redundant and put 80 on furlough.

It said that the pandemic had seen a change in customer demands – but added that it hoped to be able to recover in the long term.

Formaplex director Robin Allen said: ‘When Formaplex was acquired earlier this year, the expectation was that the business would need to undergo some operational restructuring to make it more efficient in light of Covid and changing customer demands.

‘Given the ongoing impact of the pandemic on our customers around the world, it has been necessary to make difficult decisions and take steps to protect the long-term future of the business.

‘In addition to the 18 redundancies we have made so far, we have entered into a consultation period with our employees.

‘Sadly, we anticipate making up to a further 110 full-time employees redundant across our sites. We anticipate that as customer demand returns to normal in the future, we will be able to grow the business again.'

Positions filled by temp and agency workers are also set to go.

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Formaplex was established nearly 20 years ago as a specialist tooling partner for the F1 motorsport sector before adding injection mould tooling and moulding to its skillset and developing its sought-after expertise in composite components.

The manufacturer’s recent work has seen it make lightweight carbon fibre body panels for super cars, prototype structural tubs for hypercars, fan case liners for a new carbon fibre jet engine programme, and complex high performance injection moulded parts for the luxury car sector. It also makes components for surgical robots.

Elaghmore’s website says that it is a ‘firm of industrialists, business advisers and investors’.

It also says that from its £90m fund, it buys ‘businesses in the UK that show real promise’ and aims to double a company’s revenues within the first three to five years.

Elaghmore also acquired Orchard House Foods in January, taking its total number of acquisitions to 11.

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