Gentex Is Closing Its Only Scottish Factory. The 111 Jobs Are Moving to England, Not Overseas.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
In short. Gentex Corporation, a US-headquartered maker of military helmets, headsets, visors and oxygen masks, proposed on 29 October 2026 to close its factory in Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, citing a change in strategy to centralise UK operations on a new site in Haydock, Merseyside [[1]]. 111 jobs are at risk. No final decision has been taken: the move would happen in phases over roughly two years, and the company says eligible affected staff will keep their pay through the end of 2027 even if their own role goes earlier. The ledger logs a loss of 111, graded ANNOUNCED, status proposed, region Scotland, sector manufacturing, ai_cited: not-raised. The company's Letchworth site in Hertfordshire is also affected by the same reorganisation.
What Gentex proposed
Stranraer's Gentex factory makes protective equipment for military use: helmets, headsets, visors and oxygen masks, built at a site on the edge of the Dumfries and Galloway town that has been home to similar manufacturing under a succession of owners, most recently as Top Tek before Gentex took it on [[1]]. On 29 October 2026, staff were told the company proposes to close the site and move its work to a new, single UK location in Haydock, Merseyside, explaining the decision as a change in strategy to run the business from one centralised site rather than two [[1]].
111 jobs are affected at Stranraer. The company's Letchworth facility in Hertfordshire is also named in the same reorganisation, with a number of roles there at risk too, though no figure for Letchworth has been given anywhere this ledger could find [[1]]. Nothing in the announcement attributes any part of the move to AI or automation; the stated reason throughout is consolidation onto fewer sites.
What is, and is not, decided yet
No final decision has been made. The company describes this as a proposal, with the transition, if it goes ahead, happening in phases over the next two years rather than at a single closure date. Eligible staff whose jobs are affected are being told their pay will be protected through the end of 2027 regardless of when their own role actually ends, which gives this redundancy round an unusually long runway even by the standards of a phased closure [[1]].
That makes 111 the right figure to log, but the wrong one to treat as settled. No consultation timeline, no closure date and no departure date have been given. The ledger logs this as ANNOUNCED, status proposed, the earliest and most reversible stage in a redundancy round, sitting on the scoreboard as a loss proposed or at risk rather than one confirmed for a future date.
Why this one is different from most of this ledger's losses
Most of the manufacturing closures this ledger tracks move work out of the UK entirely, to lower-cost sites in continental Europe or further afield. This one does not: the work is going from Scotland to Merseyside, inside the same company, inside the same country. For the 111 people in Stranraer, the result is the same, a job that exists today in Dumfries and Galloway and will not exist there once the move is complete. But it is worth stating plainly, because this ledger exists to catch the difference between losses that leave the UK and losses that simply move inside it: the jobs are not disappearing from the UK economy, only from this corner of south-west Scotland, a part of the country with a narrower manufacturing base than most to absorb the loss.
What happens next
Watch for whether Gentex opens a formal consultation with the 111 staff affected, and for any response from the local council or the area's MSP, neither of which had commented at the time of writing. Watch too for a figure on Letchworth, named in the same announcement without one. If the proposal is confirmed, this row moves from proposed to consultation-concluded; if a closure date follows, it moves again, to confirmed for a future date, and only once people have actually left does it count as a job gone rather than a job announced.
Sources
- The Business Desk, "111 jobs at risk at Stranraer military gear factory," 30 October 2026. https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/scotland/news/8684-111-jobs-at-risk-at-stranraer-military-gear-factory