THERE will be job losses at Gurit's Isle of Wight factory in 2019, the company has confirmed.

Chief executive of Gurit Group, Rudolf Hadorn, said the timing was unfortunate coming less than a week before Christmas, but they had to announce the restructure due to Swiss stock market regulations.

He confirmed that while several departments will remain at Gurit at St Cross Business Park in Newport, such as admin, management and engineering, the automotive factory production was shifting in its entirety to Hungary in 2019 following continued losses in its composite components business.

He said: "The business has had its troubles and severe commercial problems, and we issued a profit warning for the group.

"This will indeed mean staff reductions on the Isle of Wight. We have not communicated when or how, and when we know, we will share the news with staff first.

"The reason for announcing now is due to Swiss stock exchange regulations as we have to inform investors and it tolerates no delay. The timing in front of Christmas is unfortunate, but we are not being careless, we have to follow the rules."

Gurit announced its planned restructure this morning.

UPDATE: Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely said: "I am very concerned to hear the news of potential job losses, especially just before Christmas.

"I have spoken to Gurit’s chief executive today to find out more and to voice the Island’s concerns. 

"I have specifically asked him to make any redundancy packages more generous than the statutory minimum to help people leaving the firm.

"I also asked him about other work at Gurit. He has reassured me they remain committed to other part of the business on the Island.

"Despite these losses, the jobs market on the Isle of Wight remains robust and high-quality vacancies, like those recently announced at MHI Vestas, continue to be created.”