Crunch Bombardier talks set for Berlin
Derby's political and business leaders are set to question Bombardier's president at the rail manufacturer's Berlin headquarters this Friday (1 July). The move comes after the government decided to award the £1.4bn Thameslink contract to German company Siemens rather than the UK manufacturer. John Forkin, managing director of Marketing Derby, told Insider: "This is not just a Derby issue, it is a UK issue - we are looking at the end of rail manufacturing in the UK."
The Derby Renaissance Board, a public-private partnership that oversees the city's economic development, agreed to send the top level delegation "as an act of solidarity" with the company which is now faced with pulling out of Derby.
They will speak to Bombardier president, Andre Navarri, about the company's future in Derby after it lost two major contracts in recent weeks.
Last week, it was announced that Bombardier had lost out on the multimillion-pound contract to build 1,200 carriages on the government's Thameslink route. A group led by Siemens was named preferred bidder for the contract, which is set to create 2,000 jobs.
The Thameslink contract is part of a £6bn rail upgrade embarked upon by the government.
Bombardier - which has 3,000 employees in Derby - also lost out on a major deal recently to a Japanese-led consortium to build inter-city trains.
Forkin said: "In France 100 per cent of trains are built in France, in Germany 90 per cent are built in Germany – in the UK it will soon be zero per cent and every train, tram and tube in the future will need to be imported."
The delegation will include Derby city leader Philip Hickson and Derby Council chief executive Adam Wilkinson as well as city's Renaissance Board chairman Peter Richardson.
"Bombardier is the only train manufacturer left in the UK. We have a meeting with the Prime Minister coming up and really want to know is there anything the government can do to persuade them to stay," added Forkin.
Bombardier employs 6,000 in the UK including 3,000 in Derby and a further 20,000 are involved in the supply chain across the Midlands. The first round of redundancies is expected to be announced this week.
