ECD and a number of its subsidiaries, including USO and Solar Integrated Technologies, Inc. (SIT) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in February, having temporarily suspended its manufacturing operations last November and restructured its operations last August, due to the "challenging" solar market conditions.
ECD, which provides solar laminates and systems for the building-integrated and commercial rooftop market, had hoped to resume manufacturing operations after selling off inventory. However, the company was unsuccessful in its bid to return to profitability. "[The] announcement is one that everyone here at ECD and Uni-Solar worked extremely hard to avoid," said Julian Hawkins, ECD president and CEO.
On the back of yesterdays announcement, the company will "immediately" reduce its existing workforce by 300 employees, worldwide. In a statement released, ECD added, "The companies will retain a smaller workforce to support the bankruptcy process and the sale of its solar and other assets, including ECDs interest in Ovonyx, Inc. USO is also retaining a small number of employees to continue to develop its core solar technologies under government-funded contracts."
In August, ECD announced the loss of around 140 jobs under its cost reduction plan. Then, in November, 400 employees across Mexico, Michigan and Ontario were given temporary leave of absence. At the time, the company said it would resume operations when its existing inventory has been sold and the market conditions warranted it. A further 500 full time employees were let go at the end of 2011, in addition to the undisclosed "personnel and other actions" taken back in June.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.