Nearly 100 jobs are believed to be under threat at smart home energy technology maker Minergy.
Grimsby, which was named one of the UK’s fastest growing companies less than a year ago, said new orders for its Zappi basic electric car charger and allied devices were not being maintained at expected levels, while also removing consumer incentives. .
The company has been identified as one of the 10 fastest growing private companies in the UK with an average annual growth in their turnover of over 180% over the past three years.
Launched by Lee Sutton, CEO, and Jordan Brompton, Chief Marketing Officer in 2016, it has attracted support from investment house chairman Bill Currie and former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy to help fuel the rapid expansion needed.
However, according to Grimsby Livezappi’s new orders did not meet expectations and started a 45-day consultation with the staff.
A Minergy spokesperson said: “Minergy has experienced unparalleled levels of growth in one of the world’s fastest growing sectors and has always aimed to expand its resources and teams to meet market needs. However, challenges arising from the macroeconomic environment, including The cost-of-living crisis; plus lower-than-expected growth in our largest electric vehicle charging point markets – due to the removal of consumer incentives – means that growth is not expected to be as high as expected.
“While the overall demand for our products remains high, the level of staffing done to deliver the backlog appears to be quite high compared to the current demand, and we have to adjust our resource size accordingly.
“The current volume of business is not at a level that we think can be sustained in the short term, if we want to remain competitive and able to invest in the future. We therefore had to take the very difficult decision to identify a number of roles at risk of duplication and enter into a collective consultation period.
“This is not a decision that we envisioned or that we wanted to make, but unfortunately it is a decision that we believe is necessary based on the realities of the current market conditions. We remain confident in the future of Minergy and committed to our role in the region, including manufacturing.”
Recently in April, myenergi secured a £30 million financing package from HSBC UK to support the development and production of smart home energy products.