The global recession has now also reached the Piping Systems business of the Swiss industrial group Georg Fischer (GF, Schaffhausen; www.georgfischer.com). As a result, 42 of the present 700 jobs at the Schaffhausen site will be axed. A redundancy plan has been drawn up for the affected employees, said the parent company during a presentation of the broadly based structural program.

Until February this year, the company was in line with its medium-term growth targets for GF Piping Systems, and the Swiss company was also satisfied with its results for the 2008 financial year (see Plasteurope.com of 04.03.2009). Now, however, said a company spokesman, sales had collapsed and there was little alternative to redundancies.

Speaking about additional organisational measures, the company said it wanted to concentrate production at GF TPA in Italy at a single location in Busalla – mainly plastic fittings and fittings for plastic piping systems. Furthermore, the production shops, warehouse and administration in the Bologna region would be closed and the Swiss building technology activities pooled in the newly acquired firm JRG Gunzenhauser in Sissach. Despite all the changes, the intention is to stick to the planned expansion and innovation speed of GF Piping Systems. This summer, for example, the fittings plant in Ratnagiri / India will start production so that the company can meet the country's high demand for water and gas supply lines locally. In China, two more pipe facilities will go on stream before the end of 2009.