SoloPower seeks investors, restructuring has commenced - report

Jul 11, 2013 - US thin-film solar firm SoloPower Inc has initiated restructuring activities and is looking for investors, its CEO Robert Campbell told Bloomberg in an e-mail.

The plan includes the relocation of the California-based company's headquarters to Portland, Oregon where it has a manufacturing facility.

SoloPower has been hit, as many peers, by falling prices of solar products. It has already disposed of redundant assets and axed jobs, Campbell was cited as saying. He did not say how many workers have been let go so far, Bloomberg said on Thursday.

In a notice to the state of Oregon from April, SoloPower Inc said it will lay off in June the 29 employees at its plant in Portland as it needs to carry out “a major reorganisation”. SoloPower had ambitious plans for the Portland site, anticipating a headcount of 450. According to a report by Oregon Live report from April, however, in September 2012 the plant's staff had reached only 60. In February 2013 the number had already been cut to some 20-25, the news site said at the time, citing a former production manager who declined to be named.

Bloomberg calculates that solar panel prices have plunged by 57% since January 2011.

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