Dec 4, 2015 | By Tess
South Carolina based 3D printing company 3D Systems has just announced through a federal filing that it will be laying off around 80 of its employees from its Andover, Massachusetts office, which itself may be headed to a phased closure.
While the 3D printing industry’s long-term future still looks promising, with consulting firm Wohlers Associates predicting a growth for the 3D printing global market of $5.5 billion to $21.2 billion in the next five years, many 3D printing companies are currently suffering from slow growth or even losses.
3D Systems has experienced rather tough losses over the past year with their share prices dropping from their highest last year at $97.25 to only $9.29 this past week.
Earlier in November it was reported that the company was planning to close its Andover, Massachusetts location - The Boston Globe reports that the location is set to be closed by mid 2016 - in order to consolidate manufacturing as well as their R&D teams. Until very recently, however, it remained unclear whether employees would be relocated or laid off entirely. Now, with the recent announcement, it seems that 3D Systems will be laying 80-85 engineering and software employees from Andover by the end of February.
This past year has not been easy for the 3D printing company, as Avi Reichental, 3D Systems CEO of the past 12 years stepped down in late October, which triggered a fall in shares of 7% in premarket trading for the company. Reichental’s leaving the company also came after a brutal loss of an $11 million arbitration case, where 3D systems was sued by the founder of Print3D, a startup which was bought out by the company in 2011.
Andrew Johnson, 3D Systems’ Interim President and Chief Executive Officer said of the losses, “We are disappointed with our overall results and the lower revenue from our 3D products and services, which we believe were negatively impacted by continued challenging market conditions that extended customers’ capital investment cycles and reduced demand across all geographies.”
3D Systems, one of the world’s leading and most recognized 3D printing companies and services was founded in 1986 and currently has over 25 offices around the globe, which include 13 in the United States alone. 3D Systems became known for buying up smaller startups and firms, which helped the company grow and become one of the largest companies in the 3D printing industry. In the current investment climate for the 3D printing industry the company is suffering heavy losses, though it remains to be seen whether their consolidations and new leadership will help in turning the tides.
Posted in 3D Printer Company
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Same thing is happening at Stratasys. They will lay more people off and move more of the company to Israel in 2016.
Ignacio wrote at 12/4/2015 4:10:53 PM:
That tends to happen when you sell low quality products for more than twice of what the competition charges.
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