Alfa Laval has announced that structural changes are needed to secure long-term competitiveness for its air heat exchanger business in Europe.
Alfa Laval intends to consolidate the European manufacturing footprint of air heat exchangers for refrigeration applications to existing manufacturing sites in Italy, Poland and Finland. The intention is to close the site in Groningen, the Netherlands, by September 2015. The change will affect about to 90 employees in Groningen.
“To remain competitive in Europe, we need to restructure our manufacturing of air heat exchangers”, says Lars Renström, President and CEO of the Alfa Laval Group. “The air business is important to Alfa Laval and we recently introduced two new product platforms”.
Alfa Laval will now start negotiations with the parties concerned, i.e. different labour organizations in Groningen, and actively work to minimize the negative impact for the affected employees.
The financial impact of this initiative is part of the restructuring package that was announced in Alfa Laval’s third-quarter report. The package is estimated to reach a level of savings of SEK 300 million on an annual basis during the fourth-quarter 2015.