A GKN Aerospace employee works on a automated fibre placement machine Photograph: via GKN Aerospace

GKN Aerospace to cut 1,000 Jobs Worldwide

GKN Aerospace is set to axe 1,000 jobs worldwide as part of a restructuring plan that pre-dates its £8bn takeover by Melrose.

The company which has grown rapidly by acquisition, increasing in size from £600m turnover in 2006 to more than £3.5bn at the end of 2018 said it needed to cut the positions to simplify the business reducing duplicate roles created by these acquisitions across the 15 countries in which it operates from.

GKN Aerospace is part of the GKN engineering group which was purchased by Melrose after a hostile takeover last year. After the takeover was successful Melrose had to make assurances to the UK government to keep its own companies headquarters and stock market listing here in the UK.

We are creating a single, fully integrated business aligned to our customers’ needs, which will ensure we are better positioned within the competitive global aerospace market.
Hans Büthker, Chief Executive Officer GKN Aerospace

The company said that the reorganisation will take place over the next two years and, following the move to simplify the business, GKN Aerospace’s global headcount and will aim to manage as much of this reduction as possible through natural means, such as the usual turnover of people, vacancy management and redeployment of employees.