Staff at a former Sunderland car parts factory have been taken on by a new firm that has snapped up its old employer’s base.
ZF announced plans to close its Sunderland base at the end of 2020, after 30 years in the city. The firm had around 110 staff, but said it has seen volumes of orders fall significantly in recent years. Now AIM-listed Saietta Group taken over the lease on the ZF site in Rainton Bridge, which it will use to accelerate its expansion plans.
Oxford based Saietta Group – which designs, develops and supplies powertrains for electric vehicles on land and sea in bases around the world – is set to onshore work from China to the North East, after signing a deal for the facility. The firm – which was floated on the London Stock Exchange AIM in July 2021 – aims to grow capacity to manufacture around 100,000 electric propulsion motors per year.
