SCOTLAND'S leading independent printed circuit board (PCB) firm issued a stark profits warning yesterday, while a second PCB manufacturer, based in the Borders, prepared to put its employees on a short-time working week.
Prestwick Holdings announced late yesterday afternoon that the ''rapid and severe'' deterioration of the global electronics market meant the Ayr-based company was unlikely to generate a profit in the current financial year, which ends on August 2.
Meanwhile, Signum Circuits cited similar reasons for its decision to cut back man hours at its Selkirk plant.
The developments follow rapidly on the heels of similar announcements by other computer-related companies north of the Border.
At one end of the spectrum is Donprint, Jarvis Porter's computer label manufacturing subsidiary based in East Kilbride.
Earlier this week the parent company said lower demand from the computer sector was part of the reason why it failed during the first two months of this year to keep up with profits generated during the same period in 1997.
The fall-out from the world electronics slump was harsher at Viasystems, whose PCB manufacturing facility neighbours the Signum site in the Borders.
It announced last week that 210 of its employees would be made redundant.
In its statement yesterday, Prestwick said it would make an unspecified number of staff cuts among its Ayr workforce
With market conditions not expected to improve in the next three months, the company has also initiated a cost containment programme and is delaying any further capital investments.
''We believe that the entire sector is suffering from the severe market conditions,'' chief executive Pat Moore said.
''As Prestwick has recently acquired significant new customers, we expect to benefit quickly from any upturn in the market or further strengthening of Continental currencies against sterling.''
In the Borders, the developments at Signum and Viasystems have served to deepen concerns about job security in the area.
Roxburgh and Berwickshire MP Archy Kirkwood yesterday highlighted the plight of the region - hit by problems in knitwear, agriculture and now electronics - in an adjournment debate of the Scottish Grand Committee.
Signum, formerly known as Met-Etch, was taken over two years ago by managing director Guido Crolla.
Forty staff were made redundant earlier this year, leaving a workforce of around 140 people.
Signum has in the past taken on subcontracted work from American-owned Viasystems, although this has diminished with the recent inclusion in the Viasystems European empire of the ISL production plant on Tyneside.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article