Vestas integrates offshore and onshore activities, intends to lay off 220 employees

As a leader in onshore wind and with a vision to become the global leader in sustainable energy solutions, Vestas (Aarhus, Denmark) reported on Jan. 14 that it is currently seeks to extend its leadership to encompass offshore wind. As a first step in this journey, Vestas has acquired MHI Vestas Offshore Wind (MVOW) and, following closing of the agreement in December 2020, has begun the integration of Vestas and MVOW into one organization that is based on one shared operating model and unified culture.

According to Vestas, the integration of the two companies will help meet market demand and create synergies as offshore wind expands to new regions of the world. It is also building a stronger and more competitive Vestas across its onshore and offshore businesses. However, notes Vestas, its planning has shown synergies across several functions, which, unfortunately entail redundancies. Consequently, Vestas intends to lay off approximately 220 colleagues, primarily in Denmark and Great Britain, with the majority being in Denmark. No layoffs are expected of hourly paid employees.

“Since we announced the agreement to acquire MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, we have meticulously planned how we can build a united and strong Vestas organization that can lead and scale up in both onshore and offshore wind,” says Henrik Anderson, Group president and CEO of Vestas. “I want to thank everyone for their hard work and dedication during a difficult period where my colleagues have contributed to both the integration planning and execution of commercial commitments. We have now started implementing our integration plans, which unfortunately includes letting around 220 hardworking colleagues go. It is never easy to make such a decision or say good bye to good colleagues but integrating and simplifying two companies inherently creates overlaps between functions and it’s therefore necessary if we want to create a competitive and scalable organization.”

The organizational integration will continue throughout 2021 and include a consolidated and simplified setup, which will be announced internally on Feb. 1, 2021. The new organization will also adopt a strong focus on creating a unified culture rallied around accelerating the energy transition and Vestas’ values of passion, accountability, simplicity and collaboration.

Vestas says it will now go into a consultation process with relevant employee representatives and aims to have clarity for most employees by end of January. Due to certain legal processes and requirements, the process may, however, take slightly longer outside Denmark. Following this announcement, Vestas employs more than 29,000 globally and around 6,000 in Denmark across onshore and offshore activities.