Beko Europe is planning to close down its plants in Łódź and Wrocław, affecting some 1,800 employees working at the home appliance manufacturer in both production and office/admin capacities.
The company’s announcement said the layoffs are part of a “production optimization plan aimed at securing a sustainable and profitable future for its industrial operations in Poland,” according to a statement sent to PAP last week.
Weak demand has affected the profitability of Beko Europe’s operations, and Polish production facilities, particularly in Łódź and Wrocław, have been recording significant financial losses for several years, wrote wPolityce.pl.
“To address these challenges, Beko Europe will take the necessary steps to close down the operations of the Łódź plant (production of ovens, dryers and plastic components) and the Wrocław refrigerator factory, as well as some office positions. This plan will be carried out in close consultation with the relevant stakeholders, including trade unions and local authorities, in accordance with applicable regulations,” the statement read.
Francesco Celentano, senior director of operations for the Northern Area of Beko Europe, told the press that “the proposed restructuring is a difficult but necessary step to secure the future of production in Poland and ensure a sustainable and profitable future for Beko Europe. This decision was very difficult and we fully appreciate and respect the excellent staff in both Łódź and Wrocław. Our priority is to support our employees during this transition with full transparency and empathy.”
The announcement added that once the transformation is complete, Beko’s manufacturing operations in Poland will focus on key product lines such as washing machines, dishwashers and built-in ovens, with further investments in research and development and its shared services center (SSC) to increase competitiveness.
The reactions to the announcement have been stern, with one news site last week quoting employees in Wrocław as saying simply, “We are bitter.” The refrigerator plant is closing after 30 years, affecting 700 people.
The head of the trade union NSZZ Solidarność told the Salon24 news portal that many employees have over 20 years of experience in the Łódź plant, adding that talks with Beko will initiate on September 23, but absent agreeable terms, they will strike.
One employee told the site: “These are single mothers with children. These are people who have been working here for twenty-something years. For some, this is their whole life that they have spent here. People are terrified, sad, and embittered. Where will such a person who has spent their whole life here find work now? Where will people who have five or four years until retirement find work?”
Yesterday, a reporter for Radio ZET posted that workers in Łódź departed the factory there in black T-shirts in protest of the closures. Over 1,000 people have lost their jobs in the Łódź factory alone, he noted.
Another poster made the political point many are making in the wake of the layoffs, specifically calling out Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his ruling party’s allegiance to Germany.
“I voted for PiS so that Poland would be better off, so that Poland would develop, but you voted for bandits, and now you in Beko are surprised that you were rudely informed at night that 1,800 people are being laid off? And what did you expect from German lackeys!”
The charge of caving to (or catering to) Berlin’s interests, even out of mere negligence or poor management, is not new. Shortly after taking office, Tusk’s government halted progress on the CPK project — a key element of Poland’s vision to become a major transport hub in Europe. It didn’t take long for Lufthansa Cargo’s regional director for Central and Eastern Europe to announce plans to launch freight routes between Frankfurt and Katowice as early as this winter.
