The group had recently initiated a comprehensive savings and conversion program.
(Photo: dpa)
Ellwangen The ailing battery company Varta has announced that hundreds of jobs will be cut. A restructuring program approved in March envisages cost savings of around 800 full-time positions company-wide, the company announced on Tuesday in Ellwangen (Ostalbkreis). Meanwhile, Varta wrote deep red numbers in the past financial year.
According to the information, around 390 jobs are to be cut in Germany over the next two years, 240 of them this year. Cuts are therefore planned at all locations in Germany across all areas of the company. The locations in Ellwangen, Nördlingen and Dischingen are affected.
According to Varta, global crises have recently weighed on the results and made decisive measures necessary. Above all, massive price increases for energy and raw materials and a gloomy consumer mood had an impact on the company, it said.
According to Varta, it currently employs around 4,700 people worldwide. The management has started talks with the employee representatives about the restructuring concept.
The company is aware of its responsibility towards the employees and the region, said board spokesman Markus Hackstein according to the announcement. “We have the clear aim of designing the specifications of the restructuring plan in such a way that we can secure the future of our company and at the same time preserve as many jobs as possible,” said Hackstein.
The company also presented preliminary figures for the 2022 fiscal year on Tuesday. The bottom line is that the company made a loss of around 200 million euros. This is due to an unscheduled depreciation on property, plant and equipment in the lithium-ion button cell division, which Varta once brought so much growth. In 2021, the company listed in the SDax had made a profit of almost 126 million euros.
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