Google-owned Motorola Mobility has decided to indefinitely suspend
operations at its assembly unit in Chennai. The move will affect 76
employees at the facility.
Motorola Mobility Corporate Communications (Asia Pacific) Director William Moss is quoted as saying,
“On Monday, we began informing 76 employees of our customer fulfillment
centre in Chennai of our plans to suspend the operations indefinitely
as of February, 2013. We know this is difficult for our colleagues who
are impacted, and we are working with them to settle all dues, provide
relief packages and to help them find other opportunities.”
According to Moss, the move is part of
the company's efforts to streamline the company's supply chain
activities. He added: "We are now fulfilling customer orders directly
from factories, and we have no current or forecast production
requirements that would require the continued use of our Chennai
facility.”
Moss further said that the decision to
close down Chennai plant was taken after considering several options to
keep plant operational. "This decision (to suspend the operations) only
affects the Chennai customer fulfillment centre. We continue to
maintain our R&D centres for mobile devices and home business,
corporate IT and other corporate functions in India", he said.
The announcement to shutdown the Chennai plant comes days after the company shut down its India specific product website.
“We are streamlining our business and support systems, and
unfortunately, we'll no longer have a dedicated website for India. Your
local support site will remain open well into the future, and we'll
continue to provide support for our existing products. If you are
interested in viewing our current products, you can still do so here,”
reads the message on the site.
Google had acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in May this year, on the back of heavy losses last year. Motorola Mobility is totally independent from Motorola Solutions.
Source: Business Today