GKN Plc to close its helicopter factory in Somerset

(Reuters) - British engineer GKN Plc said on Thursday it would close its GKN Yeovil helicopter factory in Somerset at the end of 2017 and cut several jobs at the site.

GKN, which supplies components for Airbus and Boeing planes, started a formal consultation last month after Leonardo Finmeccanica SpA's decision to take all future AW159 Wild Cat work in-house.

"Since then, we have explored all possible options to avoid closure," a GKN spokesman said in an email to Reuters.

"However, we have found no realistic chance of significant, long-term helicopter work in the foreseeable future, and we have been unable to find a solution that would make GKN Yeovil a sustainable business."

The GKN Yeovil site has 215 employees.

"Some of the work packages from Yeovil will be transferred into other GKN sites in the UK," spokesman.

"We will offer relocation opportunities to employees alongside these, wherever possible."

The company, which had stuck to its full-year 2016 forecast in September, had said it would cut 30 million pounds ($37.25 million) of costs to help stay competitive.

(Reporting by Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by James Dalgleish)