Molecular Devices to close Hampshire site and move to Carllifornia

50 jobs go as firm quits Hampshire for United States 50 jobs go as firm quits Hampshire for United States

Up to 50 jobs will be lost after a pioneering technology firm revealed it will close its Hampshire premises and move to America.

Employees of bioanalytical firm Molecular Devices have been told the business will move from New Milton to California.

It has been reported the company which makes robotic machinery for testing cancer cells and heart disease will shut its base at Queensway Industrial Estate on March 31 and the premises will be put up for sale.

Workers have been left “disheartened and upset” by the shock closure plans.

Chief operating officer at Molecular Devices Greg Wigmore confirmed staff were being consulted on redundancies and the plans to sell the site adding about 15 per cent of people had been offered a relocation package to Sunnyvale in California.

He said: “The rational business decision is to move manufacturing, marketing and R&D to the Molecular Devices Sunnyvale site in California and absorb all other functions into the existing infrastructure there.”

He added: “Obviously our current focus is to support staff through the remainder of this process and to continue to provide high quality products and services to our global customer base.”

Comments(12)

Andy Locks Heath says...
8:13am Fri 16 Nov 12

Well Councillor Williams you've been applauding yourself for the jobs you have driven away from the city, how many have you created or brought in?

hulla baloo says...
8:52am Fri 16 Nov 12

Local MP's will you be holding talks about this as well, and any further companies that close down?

MGRA says...
8:57am Fri 16 Nov 12

hulla baloo wrote:
Local MP's will you be holding talks about this as well, and any further companies that close down?
they are not closing down. they are re-locating.

southy says...
9:00am Fri 16 Nov 12

Andy Locks Heath wrote:
Well Councillor Williams you've been applauding yourself for the jobs you have driven away from the city, how many have you created or brought in?
Andy these jobs are in New Milton just the other side of Pennington Marsh, about 18 miles west of southampton.

Vix1 says...
9:19am Fri 16 Nov 12

Where is "Carllifornia"???? How do these people get to work on a newspaper??????

sotonwinch09 says...
9:23am Fri 16 Nov 12

A whole 50 jobs? Oh noes!

hulla baloo says...
9:59am Fri 16 Nov 12

MGRA wrote:
hulla baloo wrote:
Local MP's will you be holding talks about this as well, and any further companies that close down?
they are not closing down. they are re-locating.
First line says it will close its Hampshire premises.

10 Minute Man says...
10:25am Fri 16 Nov 12

You can say "50 jobs" but these are the good ones, the ones we want to keep, like the ones at Ford and its suppliers.

Replacing them with 50 more temporary part time retail jobs isn't the approach which is going to benefit our economy in the long run.

And "holding talks" isn't really the pro-active strategic thinking we need.

Bascule says...
1:20pm Fri 16 Nov 12

sotonwinch09 wrote:
A whole 50 jobs? Oh noes!
Classy response, idiot.
50 livelihoods gone, 50 families affected, another 50 people competing for what few jobs there are left in the area, 50 salaries worth of contribution to the local economy lost. Let's hope you never have to face losing your job and income and maybe home because of it, that way you can carry on sitting in your ivory tower. Oh Noes indeed, this is devastating for those concerned - show some respect, just as for those at Ford etc..

Linesman says...
3:04pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Andy Locks Heath wrote:
Well Councillor Williams you've been applauding yourself for the jobs you have driven away from the city, how many have you created or brought in?
Well said Andy.

How did you know that there was a Councillor Williams in New Milton, because I can find no trace of one?

lovetheladies says...
5:17pm Fri 16 Nov 12

End of the day like fords, it must of surely meant the staff weren't good enough. Cause we all know its the bad ones that get made redundant or lose a job!

Ginger_cyclist says...
12:30am Sat 17 Nov 12

Vix1 wrote:
Where is "Carllifornia"?
??? How do these people get to work on a newspaper??????
They probably pay peanuts at Daily Echo so obviously they probably employ the residents of monkey world, then again even a monkey could do a better job at spelling a lot of the words I see on here that get misspelled.

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