SunPower Corp. has launched a reorganization plan to restructure its Philippines manufacturing operations and reduce its workforce.
As part of this initiative, the company will temporarily idle six of the 12 lines in its Fab 2 cell manufacturing plant and 20% of panel manufacturing in the Philippines, in order to reduce inventory, lower operational costs and improve efficiency. As a result, the overall blended utilization for the fourth quarter will be approximately 60%.
Additionally, the company will reduce its workforce by approximately 900 employees, with the reductions occurring primarily in the Philippines.
‘Industry conditions continue to be challenging, and while it is never an easy decision to reduce positions, we must make prudent decisions to effectively compete in an industry with significant overcapacity,’ says Tom Werner, CEO and president.
SunPower adds that it continues to make ‘strong progress’ on its cost reduction roadmap and remains committed to reaching its cost per watt goal of less than $0.75 per watt on an efficiency adjusted basis for SunPower's lowest cost solar panels by the end of the year.
