Networking equipment specialist Octocom Systems, the same company that was busy at the Telecommunications Managers Association convention showing its new ISDN adaptors, is to cease manufacturing at its UK plant in Newbury, with the loss of six jobs. The reason it gives is that tumbling rents in the US make it cost-effective to shift production back across the Atlantic. Octocom’s new premises, close to its existing headquarters in Wilmington, Massachusetts, cost a mere $3.50 per square foot. Possibly this is due to the fact that the seller, Wang Laboratories Inc, needs all the cash that it can get at the moment. According to Philip Morris, UK general manager, the deal was put through very quickly because Wang was in financial difficulties, severe financial difficulties… they practically bit our hands off when we offered to take the space from them. Octocom’s reasoning seems to have been knocked out of kilter by the retrenchment, however, since the company says that it will hold onto the UK premises for storage purposes. He would not be drawn on how this could be reconciled with the cost-cutting justification for ceasing manufacture. Indeed, Octocom says it still intending to manufacture here sooner rather than later.
