Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit to cut 85% of workforce

Sir Richard Branson's rocket company, Virgin Orbit, has announced that it will reduce its workforce by 85% after failing to secure new investment.

The firm will also cease operations with no plan to begin again in the foreseeable future, according to media reports.

Approximately 675 employees located across all areas of the company will be impacted by the job cuts.

"We have no choice but to implement immediate, dramatic and extremely painful changes," Virgin Orbit chief executive Dan Hart told in an all-hands meeting reported by CNBC.

The decision comes weeks after the company announced an "operational break" in an attempt to shore up its finances.

Virgin Orbit said in a regulatory filing in the US that the reason for its decision was "to reduce expenses in light of the company's inability to secure meaningful funding."

The company revealed that Branson's investment firm Virgin Investments has injected $10.9m into the rocket-launching company "to fund severance and other costs related to the workforce reduction."

An unsuccessful rocket launch from Cornwall in January lead its share price on a downward trajectory with a more than 44% plunge in after-hours trading in New York on Thursday (30 March).

Virgin Orbit, established in 2017, develops rockets to carry small satellites to space and is a part of Richard Branson's business empire which includes the airline Virgin Atlantic and space tourism company Virgin Galactic.