260 jobs at risk as EMS giant Jabil ends manufacturing at Livingston

Electronics manufacturing services giant Jabil has announced plans to end manufacturing at its Livingston site with the loss of 260 jobs.

Jabil's Livingston site

Jabil’s Livingston site

The group has begun a consultation with staff at the facility, which was its first in Europe when it opened in 1993, over the plans. It expects to end manufacturing at the site in a phased run-down that will be complete by the end of the year.

Around 100 support staff will continue to work at the Livingston site and the company said that its Ayr facility would not be affected.

Jabil Livingston provides a range of EMS services, according to the group’s website, including complex electronics assembly and complex mechanical and electronics assembly. The bulk of its work is for emerging technologies in the energy generation, storage and monitoring, instrumentation and telecoms sectors.

In a statement, the company said: “Following a detailed strategic review of the Jabil Livingston site business plan and future loading requirements, we have concluded that there is unsustainable current and future demand to support the viability of the site.”

The statement added that the announcement was “in no way a reflection of the hard work, dedication and loyalty of our Livingston-based employees” and said that it would support them through the consultation process and their future job-hunting.

News of the planned restructure comes just two years after the group announced a major £12.5m investment in its Livingston operations that was intended to create around 200 jobs and was supported by the Scottish government.

The investment, according the The Scotsman, had been secured by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on a trip to the US to meet with the company. At the time, it was reported that Jabil planned to create a centre of excellence at Livingston, one of only three in its global portfolio of companies.

Jabil declined to comment further on the circumstances around the closure when contacted by Electronics Weekly.

The news comes as doubt hangs over another major Scottish electronics manufacturing site, the Texas Instruments fab at Greenock. TI has announced plans to close the plant, which employs almost 600 people, by 2019.

Late last month, councillor Stephen McCabe told local reporters that there was no longer any “live interest” in a sale of the facility and that a combination of Brexit, a US focus on domestic job creation and the prospect of a second independence referendum in Scotland were damaging prospects for the site.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*