NEC Direct transplants to Livingston

NEC Direct has moved its corporate sales office to its plant in Livingston, near Edinburgh, from Maidenhead. Manufacturing of NEC's Powermate and Versa notebook ranges will move to the plant from France and Japan, next year. All personnel were told about the move about six months ago, and those that did not want to relocate were offered similar jobs in other NEC subsidiaries. A company representative said that there had been a few redundancies, but "nothing drastic". Colwyn Munro, general manager of NEC Direct, commented: "Below a certain level, a job is just a job. People do not expect to have to move hundreds of miles to keep it which is why we offered alternative positions to those who could not or did not want to move. "The move shows NEC's commitment to the UK market," he continued. "It made no sense to have lot of little sub office dotted around the country costing more money had causing poor communications. Bringing a consolidated manufacturing operation closer to our customer base will allow us to provide a better service." The set up in Scotland is a kernel of what it will become, he said. "Scotland has the skilled labour resources and the infrastructure to fully support this operation."®