Conti Removing Jobs, Operations from Puchov Site

At present Continental reports an overcapacity of more than two million truck tyres in its European markets, a situation that has developed due to a “drastic” fall in demand during the opening months of 2009. To remedy this, the company is further reducing European truck tyre capacity by eliminating a number of jobs at and operations its Continental Matador Truck Tires facility in Puchov, Slovakia.

Continental says it has decided to remove 75 positions will be removed from Puchov by November 30 at the latest. On top of this, following a detailed analysis of the company’s machinery business, Conti will concentrate this aspect of operations to its Hannover-Stöcken plant in Germany. This measure, reports Continental, will affect around 190 Puchov based Continental Machinery employees.

“We are a strong partner of the local community and this decision is very difficult for us to take,” declared Markus Korsten, Manufacturing Senior Vice President of Conti’s Truck Tires business unit. “The activities in Puchov are long-term oriented and we are making all efforts to master the crisis successfully.”

Production volume at the Continental Matador Truck Tires plant in Puchov had already dropped by close to 50 per cent before this latest decision was taken. These prior measures, notes Conti, automatically impacted upon the employment situation at the site: “We already implemented all available adjustment measures: we prolonged holidays, we reduced the time accounts, we stopped hiring, we introduced short-time working and we offered numerous employees an alternative position in the company,” commented Friedrich-Wilhelm Falkenreck, the Human Resources director for Conti’s tyre divisions. “Nevertheless further measures are necessary. At present we are in constant dialogue with the workers representatives, as our efforts are concentrating on giving the affected employees all the counselling, assistance and support we can.”

At present Continental employs around 4,400 workers in Slovakia.