Four months after holding a job fair to fill 1,400 positions at a new manufacturing plant in Brighton, Vestas Wind Systems said Wednesday that it has implemented a hiring freeze and may cut jobs if sales don’t improve in the next 11 weeks.
U.S. orders for wind turbines “came to a standstill” after Lehman Brothers’ collapse in September tightened credit for wind-farm developers, Vestas chief executive Ditlev Engel told Bloomberg News after the Denmark-based company reported fourth-quarter earnings.
Engel said the company would scale back capital spending in 2009 if sales don’t improve but declined to say which operations or projects may be affected.
Company spokesman Roby Roberts and spokeswoman Lone Mortensen didn’t return calls seeking comment.
Vestas announced last year that its Colorado employment would grow to 2,500 by 2010 at manufacturing plants in Windsor, Brighton and Pueblo.
The company hasn’t told local economic-development officials that it plans to cut jobs or curtail expansion.
“They’re making blades at their Windsor plant and their employment level is something over 400 at this point in time on their way to about 800,” said Larry Burkhardt, chief executive of the Upstate Colorado Economic Development Corp., based in Greeley. “They’re still ramping up.”
Vestas reported a fourth-quarter net profit of $408 million, up from $203 million during the same period a year ago.
Andy Vuong: 303-954-1209 or avuong@denverpost.com
