Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: News: Dolby Labs To Shut Down UK Manufacturing

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Posted by Ben Wales (Member # 92) on 02-06-2009, 09:04 AM:

Taken from the Swindon Advertiser 5/02/09

"DOLBY Laboratories has announced it is closing its manufacturing operation in Wootton Bassett with the loss of 60 jobs.

The international sound firm, which employs a total of 170 people at the Interface industrial estate off Bincknoll Lane, cited “changing market conditions” for its decision.

The news comes after a three-month consultation period with staff, which ended this week.

Company spokesman Mark Price said: “Dolby Laboratories is a world-class innovator in entertainment technologies and continuously seeks ways to strengthen its role in key business areas. A review of our manufacturing facilities in the UK and the USA identified that because of changing market conditions, we will have too much manufacturing capacity.

“Having concluded a comprehensive consultation process with our UK employees, the proposal to close our UK manufacturing operation at Wootton Bassett and consolidate manufacturing operations at a single facility has been accepted.

“Consequently, Dolby’s manufacturing operations at Wootton Bassett will cease at the end of April 2009 with the loss of 60 jobs.”

However, Mr Price emphasised that the rest of the business activities based at the site in Wootton Bassett will not be affected by the redundancies.

The company has been based in the town since 1993, when it was opened by Princess Anne."

Posted by Brian Guckian (Member # 1678) on 02-06-2009, 10:00 AM:

Sorry to hear this bad news.

Presumably a direct consequence of the recession with reduced consumer demand for electronic goods, and the cinema industry likewise battening down the hatches [Frown]

Posted by Sam D. Chavez (Member # 1841) on 02-06-2009, 11:21 AM:

Dolby Labs always had significant factory resources on both sides of the pond. There were advantages to having more than one factory (fire or other natural disaster like an earthquake and Ray Dolby has always been a belt and suspenders kind of man)and it was easy to justify this in the past as it was a privately held company.

Now it's a a publicly traded company and the rules are different.
Don't read too much into this. Dolby Labs has plenty of income.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-06-2009, 06:45 PM:

Sam, So what you're trying to say is that the Liscencing Division is the meat & potatoes... whilst the Cinema division is the Tea & Crumpets....

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 02-06-2009, 07:52 PM:

Mark; this has always been true. Cinema did not break even until the cp-500. Louis

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 02-07-2009, 07:54 AM:

I think Sam is also saying that there are distinct advantages to having more than one location, period. If you have just one, and there is some form of disaster, then you are hosed.

Also, I can recall several times when products have been introduced that the brief need for extra capacity was augmented by having two factories going.

Steve