Zarlink’s facilities in Swindon were shut down after flooding hit the site on Friday last week (July 20, 2007).
The nearby River Ray burst its banks after days of heavy rainfall across Southern England. The firm said all 180 personnel were safely evacuated at the end of last week.
While the flooding hit administration and engineering buildings, the actual bipolar fab was not affected, 
said Ed Goffin, Zarlink’s spokesman.
“There were early signs of flooding on Friday morning and they started a controlled shutdown. The river then broke its banks and there was a complete shutdown,” said Goffin.
Water reached a depth of 1.5 metres on the site and equipment in the flooded building is being moved to another office which was not hit by the flood water.
The firm said there had been no spills, leakages or discharges after 
environmental checks were made at the facility.
Zarlink said it was insured against the loss of physical plant and business interruption and that operations at the site would resume over the next few weeks.
“Foundry revenues are less than 10 per cent of company revenues. As a result, Zarlink expects minimal impact to Q2, financial year 2008 earnings,” said Zarlink.
It is unknown if other electronics firms in the area have been hit although Tyco Electronics is believed to have a facility on the same business park in Swindon.
In Tewkesbury Exception PCB said it was voluntarily turning off its water supply, which consumes 15,000 litres an hour for manufacturing processes.
Water shortages have been reported in the area and Severn Trent Water warned residents that they are likely to loose their water supply by the end of today due to the flooding of a water treatment works.
Exception PCB said it would continue operations by bringing in water by tanker from Hull with a consignment arriving every three hours.
Gordon Holden, managing director of Exception PCB, said: “At Exception, we use a lot of water in the production of our printed circuit boards – and we know that if we continued using mains water, we would put even greater strain on the region’s water supply. By taking the decision we did, we’ve probably given Tewkesbury an extra 24 hours of water.”