Prestwick Circuit closure - hasty decision?

TT Electronics owned Prestwick Circuits plans to close its U.K. manufacturing by the end of the year which will lead to that 250 employees will lose their jobs. The reason TT Electronics has given is that manufacturing in UK is no longer viable in the competition from overseas. "I disagree because we continue to do business in the U.K. and do it satisfactorily. It has been a difficult market and a difficult year but our philosophy remains there are market niches within which you can have a pretty good business", said David Jones, CEO of Invotec, to Electronics Weekly. "Maybe their business model is not viable in the U.K. but we are not all following the same business model. We saw it coming," said Mark Beesley, CEO of Circatex. "There had to be a consolidation in the market", he adds. David Jones observed that Prestwick Circuits is in the automotive sector. "We are not big in that sector. It is a very demanding and a very low margin sector. It was a reasonably conscious decision not to go into that sector." David Jones claims that UK still have great opportunities. "There are some quite good business areas where the volumes are small and not attractive to the Far East. We do not try to compete with the Far East. It is suicidal", he said.