Vestas slashes 10% of workforce Vestas on Thursday announced a sweeping restructuring programme that includes redundancy for at least 10 per cent of its global workforce, the closure of a factory and structural changes in a bid to shave €150m from annual costs. Ditlev Engel, the wind turbine maker's chief executive, will remain at the helm while Henrik Nørremark the current chief finance officer, will be promoted to deputy chief executive and chief operating officer. The top layer of executive management had previously comprised just Mr Engel and Mr Nørremark. They will now be joined by four others to handle the sales, finance, turbines and global services functions. The changes follow an unexpected profit warning earlier this month that saw 20 per cent wiped off the value of the Vestas share in a single day. Mr Engel has since suffered severe criticism from investors and analysts and many observers had expected any restructuring to include his departure. "I am truly sorry that we have to say goodbye to so many skilled and loyal Vestas colleagues," Mr Engel said. He added that it was understandable should the public perceive Vestas as a company that treated its employees "with an iron fist" because of three rounds of lay-offs in three years. I can certainly understand if employees and people outside Vestas consider us to be in a state of crisis. The challenges we have faced in the fourth quarter of 2011 have given us a credibility problem. It is not undeserved," Mr Engel said. However, he added that he was confident that Vestas, which is the world's largest wind turbine maker, would recover and prevail in what he called the "elimination race" currently taking place in the renewable energy sector. The 2,335 redundancies announced on Thursday may swell by an additional 1,600 lost jobs at US factories should a crucial production tax credit scheme in that market expire during 2012. We are now preparing Vestas for the situation where one of our largest markets, the US, may be facing a tough 2013. This will have a huge impact on our business if we do not act now," Mr Engel said. The Vestas share fell in response to the restructuring and was 5 per cent lower at 59.85DKr in early morning trading in Copenhagen.