Seagate confirms 14% staff to be laid off

The announcement that 6,500 workers from among Seagate’s 46,000-strong workforce across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and America has caused shockwaves locally.

Seagate is Derry’s largest private sector employers with over 1,000 staff at its Springtown base.

The company last month announced the loss of around 70 jobs in Derry under a previous redundancy programme.

The fresh announcement came as Seagate Technology announced its Preliminary Financial Information For Fiscal Fourth Quarter to July 1, 2016.

The company said it expects to report revenue of approximately $2.65 billion, which was actually higher than the Company’s previous forecast of $2.3 billion, and was driven “primarily by better than expected demand for the Company’s HDD product portfolio” and “cost containment execution”.

The same report however states that “in addition to the Company’s restructuring actions announced June 29, 2016, the Company announced today an additional restructuring plan for continued consolidation of its global footprint across Asia, EMEA and the Americas.

“The plan includes reducing the Company’s global headcount by approximately 6,500 employees, or 14% of its global headcount by the end of fiscal year 2017.

“The restructuring activities and global footprint consolidation underway should enable the Company to be operating within its targeted Non-GAAP product gross margin range of 27-32% by the December 2016 quarter.”

Concerns were expressed earlier today as the reports of potentially more job losses for Derry surfaced.

There was no-one available at Seagate in Derry this morning able to discuss the implications of the fresh round of cuts for local staff.

However SDLP Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan said: “This is very worrying news for Seagate staff here locally, especially coming so swiftly after the recent redundancies at the plant.

“The SDLP has been pressing the Executive and the Economy Minister to intervene in the Seagate situation to ensure all employees are adequately protected.”

Mr Durkan added; “Furthermore this highlights the need for the Executive to make significant, positive economic investment in terms of the north west.”