Delphi looking for buyers to retain Sudbury factory for industrial use

A task force examining the future of a soon-to-be closed Sudbury factory has confirmed it is looking at the possibility of a buyer taking on the site “lock, stock and barrel”.

The South Suffolk Taskforce met on Friday and agreed to commission a new report on potential options for the Delphi Diesel Systems plant in Newton Road, which has been earmarked for closure by 2020, impacting 520 jobs.

The ‘options appraisal’ report, which is expected to be partly funded by Babergh District Council and Delphi itself, will examine credible future uses for the site, its physical assets and the existing workforce.

When announcing the closure last summer, after more than 70 years in Sudbury, Delphi cited financial pressures brought about by the declining market for diesel-fuelled vehicles, which the factory produces components for.

Task force members, including Delphi management, Unite union representatives and district and town councillors, agreed unanimously that the most desirable option is for the site to be kept for continued industrial use, while retaining as much of the factory’s staff as possible.

South Suffolk MP James Cartlidge, chairman of the task force, told stakeholders that the conversations were ongoing between Delphi’s US corporate leadership and UK government ministers, to try and find an established entity to take on the plant.

The New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is now drafting a summary document about the plant to be promoted in UK embassies around the world, to further stimulate potential interest from inward investors internationally.

Mr Cartlidge said: “I have no doubt that the principal asset of the Sudbury site is its workforce.

“It is rare for an inward investor to face the prospect of buying not only a plant, but an existing and highly-skilled workforce, drawn from the local area with a demonstrable track record of loyalty and the maximum standard of engineering excellence.

“We are, therefore, doing everything we can as stakeholders to progress the possibility of the plant being taken over as a continued industrial entity, with renewed employment for its workforce.”

At the meeting, it was also confirmed that, since Delphi announced the closure, there have only been two compulsory redundancies.

But the Unite union has voiced concerns that the factory could reach a tipping point in the coming months, where the best engineers and longest-serving workers start to split off from the company to seek alternative employment opportunities.