RR Doom3 Jul 2020 22:52
Nine thousand jobs — or just under a fifth of the entire workforce — at aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce are to go. Most of them will be in its aerospace division in Sinfin in Derby where staff assemble and test its engines. The entire population of Sinfin is about 15,000.
This coronavirus crisis is not of our making, says Warren East, the chief executive who has spent five years modernising the company. There are plenty of crises that have been of Rolls’ making during its 114 years.
In 1971, it went bust and was nationalised, only to be privatised in 1987. Failures in its Trent 1000 engine, which powers Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, will cost about £2.4bn in provisions between 2017 and 2023. Lombard has lost count of the number of times the business has been restructured. It was in the final throes of cutting 4,600 support jobs even as Covid-19 emerged.