Rakon, a specialist equipment manufacturer for the telecommunications industry, has confirmed it is to close its Lincoln facility, resulting in the loss of 85 jobs.
Manufacturing is being moved from the existing facility in the city over to New Zealand, as part of cost-saving measures.
The company’s international bosses announced the decision to Lincoln workers yesterday afternoon, following an employee consultation which started in January.
The move was sparked by a review from Rakon’s board, which showed “duplicate overhead structures and manufacturing capability between the Lincoln and New Zealand operations”.
The current facility is expected to remain open for the next six months to enable orders to be fulfilled, but will cease operation by the end of the year.
Business unit manager Phillip Davies said the Lincoln site had been profitable for many years and the move to New Zealand comes as a surprise.
“Rakon is well known for being highly successful in the area. It was shock initially, and always with these things there is a certain amount of anger and concern about the future,” he said in the Lincolnshire Echo.
“Globally we’ve got too much capacity, and the work that was done here will be transferred to New Zealand.”
