Regenersis jobs threat as phone repair talks fail

JOBS at Regenersis, Scotland's second-largest electronics employer, could be under threat after the loss of a major customer at one of its sites.

After months of negotiation with Hutchison 3G UK, the mobile giant has decided not to renew its repair contract with the Aim-listed gadget repair company.

Around 600 staff are employed at the Inchinnan site - previously the TRS mobile phone repair business founded by multi-millionaire Richard Emanuel - where work under the contract is carried out.

While there are no immediate plans for job losses, if replacement work isn't sourced before the work under the contract ends later this year, it is understood cuts may be needed.

Matthew Peacock, who became chairman of Regenersis after his Hanover Investors company bought a stake earlier this year and ousted most of the previous board, admitted the loss of the contract was "very disappointing".

Negotiations had been taking place for many months and started before Hanover's involvement in the company.

Peacock stressed that Hutchison 3G had made it clear that the decision was not due to the Inchinnan site's performance but tied in with the mobile phone giant's wider strategic plans.

"The Scottish labour force has done a tremendous job for them during the contract and they recognise that," said Peacock.

Peacock said the focus was now on trying to win new business to replace the work at the site when it draws to an end later this year and stressed that the group as a whole was continuing to see growth in its markets.

He said the board believed that any impact in the company's next financial year to June 2012 "will be more than outweighed by factors including the contribution of new business recently won or at an advanced stage of negotiation".

In the latest of a series of boardroom changes since Hanover bought its stake, the company last week recruited Ian Powell as group managing director. Powell was formerly chief executive of global fibres manufacturing business Chapelthorpe.

Sergio Tansini, previously Scottish-based managing director of Regenersis's mobile division, has also been appointed group sales director.

Finance director Jeremy Wilson is now the only remaining director who was in place before Hanover's involvement.

Hanover - which has a track record of forcing change at companies it believes are undervalued, including at Scottish broadcaster STV where Peacock is a non-executive director - acquired 14 per cent of the Aim-listed gadget repair group in February. In addition to the Inchinnan site it employs around 500 at Glenrothes, where it repairs laptops, set-top boxes, iPods and satellite navigation systems. The company plans to announce the results of a group-wide strategic review in the last week of June.