In order to reduce costs in response to the automotive industry crisis, vehicle lights manufacturer Odelo (Bursa / Turkey; www.odelo.net) intends to greatly reduce its German business. As part of this, its plant in Geislingen is to be closed by the end of 2021, affecting 133 jobs. Talks with the works council are already underway, a spokesperson told Plasteurope.com.

Cost-cutting measures are also planned at its German headquarters in Stuttgart. For instance, production-related services are to be transferred to the Odelo plants in Eastern Europe. In return, the development, sales and project management departments in Stuttgart are to be expanded. However, of the 169 jobs at the German head office, 78 will be lost as a result of the measures. The spare parts brand ULO, also located in Stuttgart, will not be affected by the cuts.

“The sustained downturn and massive cost pressure in the automotive business have made these decisions necessary,” says Muhammet Yildiz, managing director of the company’s German branch. “With this realignment, we are pursuing only one goal: to secure the continued existence of the company in Germany in the long term.” Odelo has additional plants in Turkey, Bulgaria (Kuklen), Slovenia (Prebold, Gornja Radgona) and China (Tianjin) as well as a logistics site in Mexico (Aguascalientes). Its workforce totals more than 3,000 employees. In January, construction work began on a new 4,100 m² warehouse at a plant in Gornja Radgona. The investment cost for this is around EUR 2.5m.

Turkey’s automotive industry has been heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, experiencing losses in production and exports (see Plasteurope.com of 24.07.2020).