Possible Job Losses At Alpha Solway Due To Drop In PPE Orders

Dumfries and Galloway based Alpha Solway, part of Globus group, is one of the world’s fastest growing manufacturers of global worker safety solutions for respiratory protection, chemical protective clothing, hearing protection, safety eyewear and head protection, but due to a downturn in orders for PPE from the NHS the company may have to cut back on their workforce, and are entering a consultation process with the workforce to review staffing levels. 

A Spokesperson from Alpha Solway told DGWGO Today “In the midst of the unprecedented Covid 19 crisis we committed £30m to Scottish manufacturing of high quality protective masks for the NHS. The partnership with SOSE enabled us to invest in Dumfries to ensure that healthcare professionals could be confident of long term resilience of supply.

“The partnership, and our investment, which created a significant number of jobs in the South of Scotland, was made on the basis of ongoing orders. However in recent months NHS orders have stopped, with significant financial impact. As a result, we have been left with no choice but to review operations and staffing levels.

“We have therefore begun a consultation process with colleagues but no decisions have been taken on whether this will result in redundancies and, if so, in what numbers. We are working urgently to get clarity on the Scottish Government’s PPE resilience strategy. We’d like to thank our colleagues for their hard work over the past two years as we provided millions of masks to the NHS. We remain committed to Scottish manufacturing with the increased resilience and sustainability we believe is required if we are to avoid a reoccurrence of the problems of the past.”