Jobs to go at wheel maker
CARBON Revolution is cutting the workforce at its Geelong manufacturing plant as a fall in sales is set to hit the pioneering wheel maker.
At this stage only casual workers will be affected by the cuts.
Carbon Revolution has previously advised that, while it has trimmed its expansion plans, its high-end automotive clients had encouraged the company to keep producing its advanced one-piece carbon fibre wheels.
However, in a market update to investors, the company is now forecasting that sales growth over the next six months will be affected.
Carbon Revolution CEO Jake Dingle said, until this point, it had navigated through COVID-related challenges without significant disruption to the business and team.
“We now believe that demand for our wheels in Q1 FY21 will be affected by ongoing factors related to COVID-19,” Mr Dingle said.
“This will result in Carbon Revolution’s sales growth being affected during the first half of FY21.”
Most Carbon Revolution clients are European manufacturers of prestige and sports cars and it's suspected that the revised outlook is due to a fall in sales to Ferrari, but that could not be confirmed.
Mr Dingle said in response to the situation the company must make difficult decisions, including reductions in the workforce engaged in production activities and the restructuring of shifts to optimise the business for these shortterm changes in throughput.
“Notwithstanding this, we expect to deliver sales growth in FY21 and are confident that this temporary change has no effect on the medium to longterm demand for our wheels or on our growth prospects,” Mr Dingle said.
“I’m confident that this situation is temporary, and we will get back on track as our customers return to normal operating conditions.
“I would also like to acknowledge the enormous efforts and resilience of our whole team through such a challenging period for our business and the local community here in Geelong.”
Carbon Revolution shares were trading down more than 30 per cent at $1.36 following the announcement.
The company will release full-year results in August.