Germany’s Hewing (Ochtrup; www.hewing.de), subsidiary of Finnish pipe giant Uponor (Vantaa; www.uponor.com), will sell its Ochtrup-based sheet business to the Wischemann Group (Salzbergen / Germany; www.witech.de). The sale of the business, which employs 20 workers, is to be completed by 1 January 2010.

Ahead of the sale, Hewing consolidated its composite pipe production and extrusion operations in one facility, adjusting capacity to the lower production volume. By year’s end, 78 of the company’s total 450 positions will be made redundant as a result of the restructuring. A negotiated redundancy programme allows Hewing to cut another 50 jobs, a company spokeswoman told PIE. Yet, while she said additional job cuts were likely, their final number would depend on future performance.

In an effort to strengthen its core business, Hewing wants to focus exclusively on the international OEM business. “Activities will centre on top quality, cross-linked polyethylene PE-Xc pipes and butt welded plastic and aluminium pipes, produced at Ochtrup,” said Uponor Group chairman Jyri Luomakoski.

Hewing wants to become more independent from Uponor, in terms of both organisation and manpower. In future, core competencies like sales and marketing, product management, R&D and production will no longer be supervised by the Uponor Group. Instead, a new management will oversee these divisions in Ochtrup. Who will head the business in the future remains unclear since CEOs Dieter Möllers, Heiko Folgmann and Richard Kraus will devote themselves solely to their jobs at Uponor.