Westland Spaghetti

[ozzy72]

The government was back in the firing line yesterday over the transfer of British defence assets abroad when GKN confirmed it had reached a

[Craig.]

this gentlemen is what happens when a company ends up with more debt than most of the third world is worth. lets hope italy enjoys their new apaches, merlins and lynx. I doubt Yeovil's plant will be closed, its too important and there is no way they can afford to loose the experiance.

[Felix/FFDS]

I doubt Yeovil's plant will be closed, its too important and there is no way they can afford to loose the experiance.

Excuse my cynicism ...  but logic and reason do not necessarily go hand in hand with business economics.

"Experience" = senior employees = most expensive personnel (in terms of compensation).

[ozzy72]

Agreed when BAe decided to do a spot of cost-cutting they shut down their largest (and only efficient) 146 manufacturing plant at Hatfield

[SilverFox441]

I'd expand on what Felix said. Experienced personel are not only more expensive on average they also have the most to lose if change occurs.

Think about it, after a change the "experienced" personel have no more experience with the new system than anyone else...and if they were in a leadership position and change improves things it begs the question why they hadn't made the change themselves.

[Craig.]

the main saving point of it is. 1: the british government wouldnt allow production of the apaches merlin or lynx anywhere but the UK for us. Westlands in Yeovil is the key to that production, it isnt just about costs, the plant and the workers make up over 50% of the companys output. Moving production to a cheaper location would be a huge mistake. In the long run i see this actually giving us a new helicopter company. They would take over the yeovil workers and plant, and then take over the current projects such as the Merlin and Apache. Lets face it all those are decided by the government, and one screw up by the new owners and they will just give the contract to a new company. This is all speculation of course

[Felix/FFDS]

Lets face it all those are decided by the government,

TSR.2

[Craig.]

they wouldnt dump the apache or the merlin. The lynx however is still unknown, this sale doesnt help though.

[Hagar]

Why do I get a sense of deja vu? History repeating itself yet again.

During my time in the industry Westland was probably the most difficult company I ever dealt with. There must be something fundamentally wrong somewhere. You can't simply keep pouring taxpayers money down the drain with very little to show for it.

[Smoke2much]

I cannot join this debate as I fear that I would be forced into making a political statement, this would be against the rules of this forum.

Will