Nokian Begins Job Cut Talks

Nokian Tyres has today begun new statutory negotiations in order to adjust operations and to cut personnel by approximately 450 people at its Nokia factory in Finland, due to the decreased demand for tyres. The agenda of the negotiations includes a plan to change the working model of the car tyre production from the current continuous three-shift/seven days work to the discontinued three-shift/five days operations and to re-organise operations. This would result in the annual production capacity at the Nokia factory to fall from the current 6 million or so tyres to around 4.5 million tyres in 2009.

The discontinued three-shift work and the re-organisation measures would create a need to cut personnel by some 450 people, of which approximately 100 would be white-collar personnel. The aim is to carry out part of the personnel cuts by pension arrangements and other voluntary solutions.
The new factory working model and re-organisations would reduce Nokian Tyres’ costs in Nokia by around 30 million euros.

“The Nokia factory will concentrate in producing tyres needed in the Nordic and other Western countries, whereas production at the Russian factory will be sold in Russia and other CIS countries and also partly exported to other markets. We are able to increase our production rapidly in both factories once the tyre market recovers,” says Mr. Kim Gran, CEO and President of Nokian Tyres.

The statutory negotiations of Nokian Heavy Tyres are continuing.