Baar,21.10.2016

Up to 160 jobs to go at Trumpf

The German tool-manufacturing company Trumpf has announced it intends to cease production at its plant in Baar with the loss of up to160 jobs due in part to the fact that it has suffered an 8.6% decrease in its turnover.
 
The Trumpf Group, a family-owned business which is headquartered near Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg, employs some 11,000 worldwide and, according to its website, provides production solutions in the machine tool, laser and electronic sectors.
 
Hans Marfurt, the company’s managing director in Baar, said that, in addition to the plant there operating below capacity, the relatively high wage costs in Switzerland was a factor in having to dismiss 160 of its 232 employees there, with the high value of the Swiss franc also having had a deleterious effect on business. Trumpf also operates a plant in Grüsch in the canton of Graubünden and it is here where it intends to concentrate on production.
 
This will mean that in Baar just 60 employees will be kept on, engaged mainly in the areas of marketing, sales, distribution and customer service. Sadly, the company’s move also means the training of some 24 apprentices there will cease, too, though those in their final year will be able to stay on until summer.
 
As mentioned, the fall in the company’s turnover from CHF 671 million to CHF 618 million over the course of last year was another factor in such measures having to be taken.
 
In a statement released on Thursday, the company, which has been operating in Baar since 1973, said that a consultation procedure with regard to labour law had been set up.
 
Giuseppe Reo, of the Unia trade union of central Switzerland said he had been shocked by the company’s announcement, there having been no prior warning. He insisted a social plan be set up for the employees affected, and the company has indeed pledged to do this. He also pointed out that, over the past 18 months some 7,000 jobs have been lost in central Switzerland.
 

It was only yesterday that the BASF pharmaceutical company announced that its subsidiary, the BASF Metals GmbH company, is to move its operations from Zug to London by the middle of next year, resulting in five employees losing their jobs.
 
BASF Metals GmbH purchases precious metals for the needs of the whole BASF group. Now this activity is to be undertaken by BASF Metals Ltd in London.
 
The company said the need for simplification of processes and greater efficiency were behind the move.