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.
The management of the German Duravit group has announced plans to close the production of ceramic sanitaryware at its site in Bischwiller (Bas-Rhin), Alsace, with a plan to cut 180 jobs from a total workforce of around 270.
Some 90 employees will remain at the site, manufacturing resin baths and assembling balneotherapy baths, plus sales and logistics activities. Production will be transferred to the Group's two other European sites in Germany, at its headquarters in Hornberg (Baden-Württemberg) and Meissen (Saxony). According to management, of these three sites, Bischwiller 'is the oldest and least automated, with higher production costs'. What's more, the tunnel kiln, which runs on natural gas, cannot be made profitable if it operates at 50% capacity. Employee representatives are denouncing the decision, even though they had signed a collective performance agreement (CPA) in 2021, which provided for 40 hours' work a week paid at 37, in exchange for investment of three million euros to modernise the lines. According to management, the shutdown is linked to a sufficient number of orders due to the fall in the construction market. Negotiations with the unions on the redundancy plan will begin on 18 January 2024 and run for three months. The Duravit group expects to report sales of close to €670 million this year, with a total workforce of over 6,000.
Eurofound (2023), Duravit, Offshoring/Delocalisation in France, factsheet number 200639, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/200639.