Circuit protection products company Littelfuse has announced restructuring plans which include consolidating the company’s Taiwan wafer fabrication facility into Wuxi in China.

 

The Taiwan facility was acquired as part of the acquisition of Concord Semiconductor by Littlefuse in 2006 and the consolidation is part of a global functional realignment and job elimination exercise. The company expects to book restructuring charges of approximately USD5-8 million before tax over the next few quarters. These restructuring activities are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2009 and be fully complete by the end of 2010. The annual savings from these activities are expected to be approximately USD7 million.

 

Other restructuring activities include negotiating with the workers' council to transfer manufacturing from the company's Duensen, Germany site to Mexico; the intent to negotiate closure of a company-owned distribution center in the Netherlands and distribute products in Europe through a third-party logistics provider; and the consolidation of certain support activities into the company’s existing low-cost sites.

 

According to the chief executive officer of Little, Gordon Hunter these restructuring plans are consistent with the company's overall themes of reducing sites, moving activities to low-cost locations and moving to a leaner and flatter organizational structure. He added that they believed that these moves are in the best interest of the company, its customers and its shareholders over the long term.