Bury St Edmunds firm Videndum launches redundancy consultation with staff

A long-standing firm in Bury St Edmunds has launched a consultation with staff over redundancies.

Videndum, in Easlea Road, is consulting with a ‘number of employees’ at its Bury site ‘with a view to optimising its global manufacturing footprint’.

The company, previously known as The Vitec Group and Vinten, has been based in Bury for 61 years and designs, manufactures and distributes camera supports and stabilisers, video transmission systems and monitors, live streaming solutions, smartphone accessories and robotic camera systems.

SuffolkNews understands about 80 staff in Bury are affected by the consultation.

In 2018, the firm moved into a new 66,000sqft premises in Easlea Road from its former Western Way building and at the time employed about 200 people at the site.

The firm employs about 1,600 people in 10 different countries and is organised into three divisions: media solutions, production solutions and creative solutions.

In its pre-close trading update for last year, Videndum said recovery in its markets continued to be slower than expected, but there were some signs of gradual improvement.

In an effort to simplify its organisational structure, it said it was moving from three divisions to two: Videndum Production and Imaging focusing on broadcast and imaging, and Videndum Creative Solutions serving the cine and audio markets.

Last year, the firm announced a £10 million cost-saving programme.

Asked about redundancies, a spokesperson said: “We have commenced a consultation with a number of employees at our Bury St Edmunds site with a view to optimising our global manufacturing footprint.

“It is proposed that Bury St Edmunds will become a hub for Videndum’s research and development, innovation, and key business functions, including finance, IT, sales, and marketing.”

William Vinten set up the company in 1910 making the world’s first colour projectors, and in 1964 Vintens moved from Cricklewood in London to Bury.