Sony has announced that 300 jobs are to go at cathode ray tube
(CRT) based TV manufacturing plants in south Wales as it sees
flagging demand for large CRT TVs due to the rise of the flat panel
television.
The company said it needs to make the staff cuts at Bridgend and
Pencoed to "protect the economic viability of the operation and
enable it to continue to produce CRTs and TVs at competitive
pricing levels".
"The move away from CRT based televisions accelerated last year
with flat panel products now accounting for around half the UK
market by value. The sales of larger screen CRT televisions
actually fell last year and is predicted to continue to fall year
on year," said the company.
Despite the move in the market to flat panel TVs Sony said it still
expects to see "significant" demand for CRT products in the medium
term. "We expect demand for CRTs to remain, particularly from
Eastern Europe," said Sony. The Bridgend plant supplies CRTs to its
European TV factories.
But the CRT activities within the large Pencoed plant mainly supply
TVs to the UK market which is steadily shifting to flat panel
products.
The company will still employ around 1,200 workers at the two
factories. Staff have been informed and a period of consultation
has commenced.