Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas Wind Systems has announced it will lay off 220 employees in Denmark and Britain.

The move comes as part of the integration of Vestas and MHI Vestas Offshore Wind. Vestas acquired the latter company in December. The integration of the two companies will see combination, expansion, and simplification of existing functions.

A company statement said that majority of the layoffs will take place in Denmark, with no layoffs for hourly paid employees. Vestas said it will initiate the consultation process with relevant employee representatives and aims to have clarity for most employees by the end of this month.

A Vestas spokesperson said: “Through this integration, we are building a stronger and more competitive Vestas across our onshore and offshore businesses, and our planning has shown synergies across several functions, which unfortunately entail redundancies.”

It further added that the organisational integration will continue throughout 2021.

Vestas Group president and CEO Henrik Andersen said: “Since we announced the agreement to acquire MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, we have meticulously planned how we can build a united and strong Vestas organisation that can lead and scale up in both onshore and offshore wind.

“I want to thank everyone for their hard work and dedication during a difficult period where my colleagues have contributed to both the integration planning and execution of commercial commitments.

“We have now started implementing our integration plans, which unfortunately includes letting around 220 hardworking colleagues go. It is never easy to make such a decision or say goodbye to good colleagues but integrating and simplifying two companies inherently creates overlaps between functions and it’s therefore necessary if we want to create a competitive and scalable organisation”.