Office of the City Manager
Reference: Update on Vestas Blades Operations
To: Mayor Gregory Mills and Members of City Council
Through: Jane Bais DiSessa, City Manager
Prepared By: Michael Martinez, Assistant City Manager
Date Prepared: 02/26/2021
PURPOSE
To inform the Mayor and Councilmembers on the status of Vestas Blades operations given the recent news of layoffs
STRATEGIC FOCUS AREA
Strong Local Employment Opportunities
BACKGROUND
As announced on February 17, Vestas Blades America, Inc. has made the decision to reorganize and consolidate current operations throughout Colorado due to various factors including decreased demand, COVID-19 challenges and efficiencies in the manufacturing process amongst others. As a result, Vestas will consolidate blade production to the Windsor Blades factory and repurpose the Brighton Blades site into a North American headquarters for the Global Tooling business, consolidating from six dispersed smaller locations. This entails ending blades production at the Brighton Blades factory, which unfortunately means laying off approximately 280 employees. These layoffs are expected to happen throughout April. With that said, the addition of the Global Tooling business in Brighton is expected to counter many of the jobs lost and staff is awaiting a total of net jobs gained and/or lost based on the reorganization. Out of the total jobs potentially lost in Colorado, Vestas expects to offer new roles in other parts of the business to approximately 150 impacted employees and is ensuring that employment opportunities will be available once future demand increases again.
Throughout the history of Vestas Blades and Nacelles in Brighton, waves of layoffs followed by significant hiring spikes have not been uncommon due to the volatility of the wind energy industry. At the peak of their operations, Vestas has had up to 1,800 employees at the Brighton campus and has averaged around 1,500 in recent years. Various incentive and development agreements related to this project have been executed through the years, most of which are currently in place with the Brighton Urban Renewal Authority (BURA). After review of the agreements, the aforementioned layoffs do not affect the terms of the agreements. More specifically, Vestas will maintain enough jobs (900) in Brighton to satisfy the 2011 Reimbursement Agreement that is in place with BURA. On February 22, 2021, City Manager Bais-DiSessa along with myself and Economic Development Director Patrick Giron attended a meeting at the Vestas Nacelles facility with representatives from Vestas. As discussed at the meeting, both the City of Brighton and Vestas are committed to ensuring the best relationship possible exists in order to keep lines of communication open and to offer any support necessary now and into the future.