In conversation with Express, Offshore Electronics’ Technical Sales Director and Purchasing Manager said that some of the staff previously employed by Intersurgical had contacted them to enquire about job vacancies soon after it closed.
By coincidence they were preparing to advertise some roles and there was a skills match up enabling some of the Intersurgical crew to take on roles at Offshore Electronics instead.
Pictured: Intersurgical manufactured medical supplies.
Technical Sales Director Daniel Attewell said that taking on skilled staff from a fellow manufacturer was a great coincidence for their business and for the workers suddenly out of a job.
He said utilising peoples’ skill sets was key to the island-wide response to the loss of Intersurgical.
“It is shocking when you lose a name but in terms of everyone else, and how everyone is working and how buoyant everyone else is, there needs to be some kind of reassurance here,” he said, outlining how positive the manufacturing sector looks elsewhere locally.
Purchasing Manager Jack Lucas agreed.
“We all try and work together. A lot of companies put up posts to try and get people (from Intersurgical) into new roles as quickly as possible which is nice. You don’t want to get these people working somewhere where they’re not using their skill sets to their full potential.”
Pictured: Offshore Electronics’ Daniel Attewell, Technical Sales Director, and Jack Lucas, Purchasing Manager.
Why did Intersurgical close?
Express asked Intersurgical for details about the decision to close the Guernsey factory, after 39 years operating locally. No additional information was forthcoming, meaning a statement issued on 4 October, immediately after staff had been told their contracts had been terminated is the only official comment the head office has made on the matter.
Confirming the decision to close the Guernsey factory in a statement to the media, Group Managing Director Charles Bellm said “it is with sadness and regret that we have decided to close our Guernsey site. We have done all we can to try and turn the loss making site around, but we simply cannot continue to sustain the current financial losses brought on by a number of factors outside of our control.”
The closure has been blamed on the site becoming “uncompetitive in the global economic environment” with the company no longer able to subsidise the Guernsey operation.
In 2008, in an interview with the Guernsey Press marking the firm’s 25th anniversary of operating in the island, the then-Managing Director said that “innovation and automation have been key to Intersurgical’s success over the years” but that the company had moved the bulk of its manufacturing operations to Lithuania in the mid 1990s as a result of rising costs in Guernsey.
At that time (2008), Intersurgical employed 102 people locally. it had employed 235 at its peak locally but the number of roles available fell as technological advances meant more of the work was automated.
The staffing number had fluctuated over the years – with almost 120 employed during Spring 2020 as the company responded to increased demand for its medical products during the covid pandemic.
96 staff were employed by Intersurgical on the day they were told that their contracts had been terminated with immediate effect.
The HR manager told Express that she had worked for the firm for 15 years and that some staff had been there for nearly the entire 39 years the factory had been open locally.
The majority of the workforce were employed on the manufacturing line. They helped produce medical equipment which was sold around the world.
Pictured: In recent years, Intersurgical has operated its Guernsey operations out of a building on the Pitronnerie Road Industrial Site.
Other manufacturers
Intersurgical may have been one of the better known manufacturers in the island, but it was far from the only one.
As well as Offshore Electronics producing a variety of items for sale on and off island, there are numerous other manufacturers from small ‘cottage industries’ to global providers of integral equipment based locally.
Mr Attewell said along with their clients locally, there is a lot of manufacturing going on in Guernsey that many people may not know about.
“Off the back of what we do in electronics we’ve got three customers over here that I’m not sure many people really recognise. There’s ID-Porte pet scanners and they’re doing medical scanners as well now. There’s EM Electronic who manufacture amplifiers, and Polar Instruments as well. Those guys do manufacturing here and there’s Monaflex locally as well, and they employ a lot of people.
“In terms of suppliers to us, down at Rocquaine we use Qualtech who machine casesand have manufactured spacers for us. I guess if you take your window people and joiners too, they are all manufacturing locally. It doesn’t all stay on island.
Mr Lucas said all of the local manufacturers work together.
“We’re just one piece of the puzzle, doing the electronics side of things, these guys are doing plastic moulding and assembling, testing it all before it goes out to their customer so even though we’re hidden behind their sales and brand names we’re all still here in the same industry.”
Pictured: Intersurgical employed 117 people locally during early 2020, when it took on more staff to meet demands caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Available support
Despite the shock of the news that Intersurgical was closing so suddenly, there may have been a silver lining for employees with the offer of interviews for vacant roles across numerous other industries.
The Channel Islands Co-op, Aurigny, and Labour Force were among the first firms to offer help.
Advice and support was also offered by Social Security, who said that “many employers in the island, across a wide range of sectors are recruiting and desperately in need of new, hard-working recruits to help them continue to grow, and we hope that will be of some reassurance to those affected by Intersurgical’s decision.”
The Confederation of Guernsey Industry asked its members to consider offering employment to Intersurgical staff as well.
CGi Chairman, Dave Newman said: “While it can be a traumatic and worrying time to lose employment from dialogue with our members there are staff shortages across the board so hopefully this will help former Intersugical employees obtain gainful new employment.”
Guernsey’s unemployment rate is currently low, with many industries citing staff shortages for a reduction in opening hours or services.
Read more…
“Everybody in this building has a skill”
Business group urges support for Intersurgical staff
Intersurgical pulls out of Guernsey
Intersurgical’s Guernsey story comes to an end
Factory to work around the clock
A silver lining for recruitment