District's new job strategy heads for meltdown

[Filtronic, Saltaire]

Bradford Council's new strategy for jobs in the district is on the verge of total collapse.

The draft jobs strategy focuses entirely on the high-tech industries clustered around Saltaire, including Pace and Filtronic.

But Filtronic has seen its value crash in the last 14 months, threatening the jobs of it's 1100 UK workforce.

And Pace last month stunned workers when it announced that all it's 500 manufacturing jobs are to go abroad.

[Filtronics share price over the last 3 years] Anxious councillors are watching with bated breath as Filtronic prepare to release its latest annual figures. Share prices in the company have gone into freefall since March last year, plumetting from a high of £23.25 to a low of £1.35. They have rallied in the last few weeks to stand at £2.70.

The fall slashed the value of the company from £1.7 billion to under £200 million. Current stock market advice to shareholders is "sell, sell, sell".

Desperate

Filtronic have tried to remain upbeat about their future. In March they issued a statement saying:

"With regard to current trading, the Board remains of the view that the Company will meet current market expectations for financial performance for the year ending 31 May 2001. This confidence is based upon the continuing strong level of demand for wireless infrastructure products from our businesses in Europe, USA, Australia and China and for our cellular handset products business, in particular for internal antennas for GSM handsets.
"The Board believes that the Company's existing borrowing facilities are adequate to meet the Company's current requirements."

Yet only 2 years ago Filtronic boss David Rhodes was named "West Yorkshire's top entrepreneur" and predicted that in 5 years Filtronic would be the biggest electronics firm in the UK worth £5 billion and employing 10,000 workers.

Filtronic had then just bought the Fuijitsu semiconductor plant in Newton Aycliffe for £13.5 million, but the factory has lost around £1 million a month since and Filtronic are now desperate to get rid of it.

2020 Vision

The councils hi-tech jobs strategy was drawn from their much trumpeted "2020 Vision" document, launched last year in a blaze of publicity.

That document proposed that Bradford's future prosperity lay in the "e-economy" - and Bradford's "silicon valley" was Airedale: Bingley, Shipley, Saltaire.

Council officers were given the task of putting together a detailed strategy to boost the high-tech sector - and hence create the jobs of the future on which the whole district would depend.

Amongst those consulted in drafting the strategy, in August last year, were Robert Fleming of Pace and Derek Dring of Filtronic.

Their report "A STRATEGY FOR THE GROWTH OF AIREDALE" was approved by Bradford Council's Executive on April 24th, just one week before Pace announced their massive jobs-cut.

Councillors were told of the strategy:

"It focuses in particular on the area around Bingley, Shipley and Saltaire, where a number of new technology companies are growing rapidly. It also concerns itself only with the electronics and new technology sectors. Although these sectors account for around 10% of economic activity in Airedale, the District is now the home of over 30% of all jobs in the electronics sector in Yorkshire and the Humber and nearly 60% of these are located in Airedale. The importance that the 2020 Vision attaches to this sector in this location is therefore more than justified.
"Within the time horizon of the 2020 Vision, the products that companies such as Pace, Filtronic and Eldon are currently developing will have helped make that future happen."

The report went further, stating that any future regional development grants from the government would also be tied to the new strategy:

"Details of Yorkshire Forward’s Corporate Plan for 2001/04 have just been released. It includes 7 ‘Strategic Objectives’ of which the 3rd is to ‘Invest in Key Clusters’. The Board of Yorkshire Forward has agreed that these clusters includes ‘Digital industries, such as electronics and multi-media’ amongst four others. This Strategy will provide the key strategic context for any investment opportunities that Yorkshire Forward’s Corporate Plan may provide. "

Their first target is to " Update and amend the draft Strategy following consultation with business, community and other potential contributors".

That target is set for the end of June. It is unlikely to be met.