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 German automotive supplier Kostal wants to cut 164 positions of its automotive electrical systems division ("Kostal Automobil Elektrik") at its sites in Dortmund and Lüdenscheid (North-Rhine Westphalia). The company is reported to suffer from the tough international and especially Chinese competition in the industry, offering products at substantially lower prices as well as from the trade conflict with the United States. Latter continues to burden domestic businesses.
Kostal's management and its works council have jointly developed a plan to reduce the workforce in a socially acceptable manner. The plan is based on incentivising voluntary departures instead of having to conduct forced layoffs. Employees who choose to participate in the voluntary exit programme are offered a severance payment and support in finding new employment. The voluntary exit programme is open until 7 November 2025. 57 people have already left the company in this way, so the positions still to be cut from the total of 167 now stand at 107. A company spokesperson stated that further steps might be negotiated with the works council, if the voluntary leave programme did not yield the intended results.
Already in 2022, Kostal had shed over 400 jobs in Germany (Kostal 2022 - DE).
Eurofound (2025), Kostal, Internal restructuring in Germany, factsheet number 203475, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://apps.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/203475.
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