Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
UPM, a Finnish manufacturer of paper and wood products, restructures its business activities in Finland which may lead to reduction of approximately 600 employees in Finland. They plan to close of the production site in Jämsä (Central Finland) that is part of their Communication Paper business area. The planned closure envisages 450 redundancies.
In addition to the closure in Jämsä, UPM plans to reorganise production on its manufacturing sites in Kymi, Kaukaa and Pietarsaari which may lead to reduction of 110 employees. Restructuring in other units may lead to the reduction of an additional 50 jobs in Valkeakoski.
According to the company, restructuring is needed since the profitability of paper manufacturing in Finland has decreased steadily during the past years due to decreased demand for paper products, notably as a result of declining newspaper sales. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a sudden drop in demand for paper products.
The company criticised the Finnish taxation system and high labour costs, arguing that these are factors that have had a significant negative impact on paper manufacturing. The Paperworkers’ Union (in Finnish 'Paperiliitto') argued that productivity of paper manufacturing in Finland is good due to modern technology and highly skilled employees. According to them, labour costs make up proximately 7% of the total costs of paper manufacturing due to significant reductions of workforce in the past. In addition to restructuring in Finland, UPM announced its plan to sell its production plant in Wales. InJuly 2020, UPM closed down its production site in Jyväskylä, central Finland.
Eurofound (2020), UPM, Closure in Finland, factsheet number 101555, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/101555.
Eurofound’s ERM restructuring legislation database offers an overview of key restructuring-related regulations in the EU Member States and Norway. Its content is continuously updated to reflect any changes made by national legislators in response to, for instance, policy shifts, legal...
Can Europe still achieve its ambitions for battery manufacturing? To answer this, the article looks at data from Eurofound’s European Restructuring Monitor and explores what recent large-scale restructuring events reveal about the state of play in the EU battery sector.
This working paper offers a comprehensive methodological overview of the European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) databases. Even though the methodology has not changed over time, new categories have been added, and the way it has been used by researchers and policymakers...
This Eurofound research paper explores key trends in restructuring in recent years, highlighting the companies that announced the largest job losses and job gains in the EU. It builds on an analysis of company announcements recorded in Eurofound’s European Restructuring...
In 2023, thousands of workers in big tech lost their jobs. Meta, Amazon, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Salesforce had been considered to offer good and secure jobs up to this point. Giants of the information and communication technology (ICT) sector,...
In 2024, the automotive sector in the EU came to the fore in public and policy discussions. The focus was on the slowdown in electric vehicle (EV) sales, rising global competition, belated investments in new technologies, and the potential closure...
