Cork-headquartered PCH rules out more job losses as it cuts China posts

PCH chief executive Liam Casey has ruled out any further job losses after announcing up to 250 redundancies at its Chinese operations.

The Cork-headquartered hardware design company has put in place a voluntary redundancy programme that will affect as many as 250 Chinese workers and global support staff as part of a “realignment” of its business.

The decision has been taken as PCH puts a greater emphasis on its US operations in San Francisco in response to increased demand for more complex products from clients in the area which requires much of the early-stage product development to be carried out near those customers.

“We opened a product innovation hub in San Francisco about three years ago and acquired Lime Lab, now known as PCH Lime Lab, which is a strong engineering development facility right in the heart of Silicon Valley.

"Predominantly, a lot of our customers come from that part of the world,” Mr Casey said.

“The result of that is that we’re doing far more sophisticated products; much more complex products.

"We’re getting involved at a much earlier stage in the process where we’re actually taking the product right through the lines of development; the engineering development stage all the way through to very far along the manufacturing cycle.”

Staff were informed of the redundancies, which PCH expects to be taken up in four to six weeks, yesterday morning.

Despite expecting the trends that led to its decision to lay off 250 staff to continue with an increased role in early stage development, Mr Casey ruled out further job losses, saying the company was “doing it all at once”.

PCH also has its packaging and logistics facilities in Shenzhen, China which will ensure its continued presence in the country.

The standard of Chinese manufacturing facilities has also increased significantly in recent times, Mr Casey said.

“Chinese factory partners are increasingly sophisticated, which has reduced the need for localised engineering and supply chain management services.”

PCH’s topline revenue has increased by 57% in the last three years.