Marshall of Cambridge is to make 300 people redundant, has closed its Marshall Futureworx arm and is scaling back its Skills Academy as it seeks to slash cost from the business.
Employees were left shocked this week as they were told the news, which comes after the group made a modest pre-tax, pre-exception profit of £4.1million in 2023.
Chief executive Kathy Marshall left the business at the end of May, and interim chair Roger Hardy is taking the reins while her replacement is sought.
He told the Cambridge Independent: “Our management team is focussed on addressing underlying programme delivery issues, improving the competitiveness of our cost base and taking a more systematic approach to pursuing and winning business.
“If we can continue to build on our technical know-how and strong customer reputation, we will have a solid platform on which the businesses can flourish.
“However, as we look to reshape the business, we have unfortunately identified around 300 roles, primarily within our support and administrative functions, as potentially at risk of redundancy.
“We have now launched a voluntary redundancy programme and hope to keep the need for compulsory redundancies to an absolute minimum. However, we will shortly begin formal consultation with those colleagues, and their representatives, who are potentially impacted.”
The Cambridge-headquartered company, which employs around 2,000 people in the UK, Europe, North America and the Middle East, provides engineering technologies for aerospace, land and maritime operations, with clients including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and the US Air Force.
Among the changes, Marshall is no longer planning to relocate its Land operations to a new purpose-built facility at Alconbury Weald.
The company said it had taken the decision “to look at a range of more cost-effective potential options, including finding an existing facility local to Cambridge or moving the operation across to the airport site on a temporary basis”.
The standalone Marshall Futureworx research and development accelerator, currently located at St John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge, is to be integrated into the core business, the company said.
Primarily focused on development work in the fields of sustainable aviation and autonomous platforms, its live projects are “now at the stage that they can transition into Marshall’s core business lines to be further matured”, the company said.
While the majority of the Futureworx employees are expected to move into the core business, Marshall said “a small number of roles” within the team are at potential risk of redundancy.
The company is also scaling back Marshall Skills Academy, preferring instead to focus on delivering apprentices and training for its core businesses.
The company, which has trained its own apprentices for more than 100 years, had recently gained ‘Main Provider’ status, meaning it was able to offer the service to other aerospace businesses, such as Bombardier, but will now focus exclusively on training its own apprentices, the next cohort of which will join the business in September.
Marshall said the “majority of the apprenticeship delivery team who currently work for the Skills Academy will transfer into the core businesses” but “a number of roles have been identified as at potential risk of redundancy”.
Meanwhile, the search for a new CEO goes on.
In a statement following Kathy Jenkins’ departure, Marshall said: “The board would like to thank Kathy for working tirelessly for the group during a period of huge change and disruption including the Covid crisis, the sale of the Motor business and the ending of the C130 HIOS contract.
“She has shown immense dedication towards the company and the employees, and we wish her all the very best for the future.”
In May, Marshall secured a £100million seven-year contract to provide the Swedish Armed Forces with command and control systems.
And in April, it signed a deal with the US Air Force to design, build and demonstrate a containerised system that will simplify logistics and accelerate deployment of aircraft and personnel for the United States Air Force.
Marshall is due to leave its Cambridge Airport site for a new home at Cranfield in Bedfordshire in the next few years.
