The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Dundee firm may cut one in six posts
A highly-skilled Dundee manufacturer has warned it could reduce its workforce by a sixth as it starts a redundancy process.
Staff at Pacson Valves have been informed the company is looking to cut up to 15 staff as its revenues have been impacted by Covid-19 and the global oil downturn.
Based at Claverhouse Industrial Estate, Pacson develops high-integrity valves for the global oil and gas market, and employs around 90 staff.
Managing director Keith Crawford said: “We will be looking at our staffing needs going forward based on the effects of Covid and the impact on the market sector.
“We notified the staff that we are looking at the possibility of redundancies. That’s as far as we’ve got with it at the moment.
“I can’t really put an exact number on. We would hope that it wouldn’t be more than 15 people; 10 to 15 people is possibly what we’re looking at but we haven’t finalised that yet.”
“We are hoping we can keep our adjustments to a minimum and less than some of our peers and customers have deemed necessary,” he added.
“It’s a very difficult period, it’s unprecedented.
“We have to make changes and decisions based on the market we are seeing and the information we are receiving but it’s still very uncertain as to what the recovery is going to be, when it’s going to be, how long it’s going to take to get there.”
Pacson shut its operations for a threeweek period in March and April to introduce safety measures.
It has since brought the vast majority of staff back from furlough.
The business started in 1992 from Carnoustie and originally focused on small-bore, high-pressure valves.
As the firm’s product range and customer base increased, it relocated to its current premises in 2008.
Pacson’s most recently published accounts, for the year ending September 2018, showed revenues of £4.3 million, a 34% drop from £6.6m in 2017.
In that year the firm recorded a pre-tax loss of £664,000 against a slim profit of £69,000 in 2017.