Vestas announces layoffs as offshore and onshore wind organisations integrate

Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas plans to lay off around 220 people in the process of integrating its offshore and onshore wind organisations.

Vestas has recently acquired MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, and following the closing of the agreement with MHI, the company has begun the integration of Vestas and MHI Vestas into one organisation that is based on one shared operating model and unified culture.

The integration of the two companies includes combining, expanding, and simplifying existing functions within Vestas to meet market demand and create synergies.

The company said that its planning has shown synergies across several functions, which entail redundancies. Consequently, Vestas intends to lay off approximately 220 employees primarily in Denmark and Great Britain, with the majority being in Denmark. No layoffs are expected of hourly paid employees.

“Since we announced the agreement to acquire MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, we have meticulously planned how we can build a united and strong Vestas organisation that can lead and scale up in both onshore and offshore wind,” Henrik Andersen, Group President and CEO of Vestas, said.

”I want to thank everyone for their hard work and dedication during a difficult period where my colleagues have contributed to both the integration planning and execution of commercial commitments. We have now started implementing our integration plans, which unfortunately includes letting around 220 hardworking colleagues go. It is never easy to make such a decision or say goodbye to good colleagues but integrating and simplifying two companies inherently creates overlaps between functions and it’s therefore necessary if we want to create a competitive and scalable organisation.”

Vestas will now go into a consultation process with relevant employee representatives and aims to have clarity for most employees by end of January. Due to certain legal processes and requirements, the process may, however, take slightly longer outside Denmark, the company said.

Following today’s announcement Vestas employs more than 29,000 globally and around 6,000 in Denmark across onshore and offshore activities.

The company’s organisational integration will continue throughout 2021 and include a consolidated and simplified organisational setup, which will be announced internally on 1 February, Vestas said.

The new organisation will also adopt a strong focus on creating a unified culture rallied around accelerating the energy transition and Vestas’ values of Passion, Accountability, Simplicity, and Collaboration.