Veeco Restructures Manufacturing Facilities

PLAINVIEW, N.Y., May 26 -- Veeco Instruments Inc. plans to form Centers of Excellence in a plan to restructure its Process Equipment manufacturing operations. According to Veeco this will enable them to more effectively serve the data storage and optical telecommunication markets and reduce duplicate manufacturing sites.
Due to a poor showing in the data storage industry, Veeco will reduce its workforce in that area by 13 percent: or 180 people. The company announced that it will close its former CVC/Commonwealth Scientific facility in Alexandria, Va., and will trim down its data storage Process Equipment operations in Plainview and Rochester, N.Y. Veeco is also evaluating potential cuts in other locations. The Plainview and Rochester N.Y. facilities will be Centers of Excellence dealing mainly with products for the data storage industry.
Increased demand in the optical telecommunications market, however, has prompted Veeco to expand its optical telecommunication manufacturing capability at its Ion Tech subsidiary in Fort Collins, Colo. The Fort Collins facility will be a Center of Excellence for ion beam deposition equipment serving the optical telecommunications market.