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Systems vendor to axe its Scottish manufacturing plant in move to cut 'excess production capacity'

Sun Microsystems has announced it will close its manufacturing facility at Linlithgow in Scotland, a decision expected to affect up to 140 jobs, or 15%-17% of its Scottish workforce.

The company said it plans to consolidate all of its global manufacturing at its facility in Hillsboro, Oregon to “eliminate excess production capacity and the associated costs.”

The Linlithgow site also includes a remote monitoring centre, Sun solution centre, IT network operations centre and a newly-opened executive briefing centre as well as the manufacturing wing.

A company statement said the site's other facilities “are not directly affected by today’s announcement to consolidate manufacturing” and would continue to function unchanged, although it added that “Sun continues to make choices to align strategically, geographically and operationally with its plan for long term growth.”

Sun’s decision to close the facility is not without precedent. In 2004 the company closed its manufacturing facility in Newark California in a bid to consolidate its US manufacturing arm at its Hillsboro facility. Two years later, in 2006, it closed the Newark campus completely.

The company has issued a litany of negative announcements in the past months. It has announced a $1.7 billion quarterly loss, pledged to cut its total workforce by 6,000 and retired its once-pioneering Network.com utility computing service.

Further reading:

Sun Microsystems retires utility computing service

Sun posts $1.7 billion loss Sun reports a 1.7 billion loss after its warning to Wall Street

Scotland to be paved with data centres