Sale of the IBM UK Ltd disk plant at Havant has been on the cards for 18 months now, so it comes as little surprise that the company confirms that it is looking at the possible sale of all or part of the plant, with a management buyout still on the cards as one of the options: the plant has annual turnover of UKP500m but we understand that the contract to make Western Digital Corp drives has now been completed and although IBM says it will remain a customer for products made at the plant if it is sold, the future of the 1,000 employees is far from certain; a spokeswoman for IBM UK said a formal announcement was likely within weeks, but declined to give further details that might prejudice discussions currently taking place; IBM has already sold a 65% stake in its Jrflla printer plant in Sweden and the future of the Montpellier plant in France and the Valencia plant in Spain is still up in the air – all are operating as profit centres at arms-length from IBM.
