PRITEX, based in Wellington, is planning to make nearly two dozen redundancies as a result of the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

The WWN reported last week that the company was seeking voluntary redundancies and was considering short-time working.

Now it has told staff it is proposing a restructure which, along with the voluntary redundancies it intends to process, will result in 23 job losses.

The areas of the business affected by any restructure would be internal sales, senior production/operational roles, quality, purchasing and human resources.

Pritex manufactures acoustic and thermo-acoustic insulation products for the automotive, industrial and comfort sectors.

Managing director Gareth Jones, in a statement to the WWN, said: “It has been impossible to anticipate the scale of the Covid-19 crisis, its economic consequences and the profoundly negative impact it has had on our business and customers.

“It is undoubtedly a very challenging time not only for our company but also our people. We’re therefore working hard to protect our business and all our employees’ livelihoods in the face of an unprecedented downturn in the markets we serve.

“The majority of our customers are operating at significantly lower demand with some major customers remaining closed until at least August or beyond. Unfortunately their forecasts do not indicate a return to pre-Covid-19 demand for the foreseeable future.

“We have already undertaken a number of cost saving measures and sadly must now consider other more difficult decisions. These include voluntary redundancy, short-term working and some redundancies through a company restructure.

“It’s important that we emerge from the crisis as an efficient, competitive and sustainable business that can recover and grow. A balanced approach of the different measures we are taking is designed to avoid larger scale job losses.

“However, it is deeply regrettable that we will still need to reduce the size of our workforce by 23 colleagues.

“Our priority is to consult with our staff over the coming weeks and support them through these difficult times.”