VW seat manufacturer Sitech
Sitech belongs to the components division of the Volkswagen Group and supplies the group brands with seating technology.
(Photo: Volkswagen AG)
Düsseldorf plant closings in the German automotive industry are a rare exception. Most of the time companies and the powerful agree IG metal in the end a compromise that somehow makes it possible to continue working even in economically difficult times. This is especially true for the Wolfsburg man Volkswagen group, where the works council and union have a little more influence than in most other companies.
But of all places VWCorporation is now closing its plant. “The fact that a factory can be abandoned at Volkswagen has a certain signal effect,” said a group insider on Wednesday. Even if it is only a comparatively small factory of an in-house supplier.
In Hanover, the car seat factory of Sitech Sitztechnik GmbH, a 100 percent subsidiary of the Wolfsburg-based car manufacturer, has to close. Around 450 jobs will be lost as a result, which the company says are to be cut in a socially responsible manner. The Sitech factory has so far supplied seats to the VW utility vehicle subsidiary, which is also based in Hanover.
Sitech has four more factories in Germany (Emden, Wolfsburg), in Poland and in China. In total, the VW Group’s headquarters subsidiary has around 5,400 employees worldwide and sales of around two billion euros. Sitech is closely linked to the group and usually supplies Volkswagen factories.
The closure of the Sitech factory in Hanover was preceded by a month-long dispute between the local works council and the management. Sitech Hannover has lost two important orders for models to be produced by VW Commercial Vehicles in the future.
The order for the seat production for the next generation of T7 vans from Volkswagen has been placed with the French supplier group Faurecia went. The same result was obtained when the seats were tendered for the first purely electric bus from Volkswagen under the model name “ID.Buzz”: This vehicle too will get its seats from Faurecia in two to three years from the start of production.
VW’s own suppliers have to participate in such tenders – and may end up losing orders. Sitech has made no competitive offers, it said from corporate circles.
A Sitech spokesman said that the Hanover factory had not been able to produce competitively in recent years when the plant was closed. Despite joint efforts by the company, the IG metal and the Sitech general works council, after months of negotiations, was unable to agree on all those involved to “set up the Hanover plant economically”.
Without the expected orders for the two new models, the production of the seats for the current VW Transporter T6 has now become unprofitable, according to Sitech. With the preparatory work for the seats of T7 and “ID.Buzz”, the plant could have been used much better.
“The local works council did not recognize these hard economic facts until the end,” added the spokesman. Sitech in Hanover could not have implemented urgently required steps to increase productivity, which exist in other areas of the VW Group.
More: VW increases the dividend significantly – and the profit increases.
]]>
