There seems to be good news on the horizon for some of the 700 locals who lost their jobs last week with the closing of Yazaki.
A family-owned New Zealand manufacturer, Fero, has offered 60 jobs to employees at the same wages they were paid by Yazaki.
It’s the start of something the company hopes to grow to enable them to offer at least 200 jobs in the next two years.
Fero produces wiring units that fit into products such as parking meters and police cars.
General Manager, Sam Fulton, told the Samoa Observer they are looking at starting in November.
The company’s goal is to be employing 200 employees within 24 months.
Fulton said, “There’s a bit of dependency on the amount of work that we can secure for the plant and we’ll be looking towards the Australian market for that.”
Fero has an agreement to lease approximately 8500 sqm of space in the current Yazaki building in Vaitele.
Fultom says they’ve established jobs for 60 of the current employees, at the same rate that they are currently being paid at Yazaki.
According to the GM, his company was looking to be fully operational by November 1, 2017 depending on how they can work through the Yazaki close down and pack up of their plant.
He told the newspaper they have *been looking to develop their own offshore manufacturing capabilities and wanted to make sure that they were doing it closer to home.”
They had originally looked at Fiji as an option, but when they heard of the Yazaki closure, they decided that they should investigate the operation.
Yazaki and the company they have been supplying, Australian Arrow, have helped them through the decision making process and have been very proactive in assisting.
Fulton said they were very impressed with the level of knowledge and skill demonstrated by the Yazaki staff and felt that this was a very good opportunity for them.
The move is also to assist with keeping the skills and knowledge in Samoa and to be able to satisfy customers demands.
