The Midlands factory in Nottinghamshire employs around 1000 people, which is set to close in the third quarter of 2001. In addition another 500 jobs, 200 permanent and 300 temporary are to be terminated threat at the second Ericsson plant in Scunthorpe, north-east England.
These two closures form part of a worldwide strategy to reduce costs, as Ericsson suffered losses of more than $2 billion on its mobile phone units last year. So far there have been approximately 12000 job cuts worldwide.
The Financial Times reports that Ericsson is not prepared to name the potential buyer, but it is not a mobile phone company.
Although Ericsson remains the world’s biggest network equipment supplier, earlier this year it said it was giving up mobile handset production altogether, outsourcing manufacturing to several smaller firms.
