Rodenstock cuts jobs at Kent HQ

Rodenstock is to cease lens surfacing and coating in the UK resulting in around 30 redundancies from its UK manufacturing base in Northfleet, Kent.

Explaining the move, UK managing director Dietmar Rathbauer said meeting the predicted demand for advanced lenses was best achieved by concentrating investment in the group's main European plant. Demand for conventional lenses had reduced over recent years, he said, and the European plant's 24/7 working would ensure that customers would be unaffected.

'Investment in the European plant over a number of years has resulted in the highest quality facility; it has produced freeform lenses for the UK since 2001. The cost of investing in the technologies and equipment for the UK would be much greater than using existing European facilities.' He added that the UK was the last of the group's local production facilities to take this option.