Finnish piping system specialist Uponor (Vantaa; www.uponor.com) is in the process of restructuring activities at two subsidiaries. The company is "seeking efficiencies" at Uponor Suomi and Uponor Infra and will involve trimming 140 jobs, the company stated. The two subsidiaries employ a combined total of 740 individuals at production locations in Vaasa, Nastola, Ulvila and Forssa as well as smaller facilities in Jyväskylä, Espoo and Tuusula. Management at the company plans to begin negotiations with the respective staff beginning 27 September and finalise the process over the following six weeks.

With Uponor Infra, the company said the goal is to move ahead with the merger plan begun in the summer when the joint venture with fellow Finnish piping specialist KWH Group (Vasaa; www.kwhpipe.com) began operations in July – see Plasteurope.com of 04.07.2013. Management is anticipating annual cost savings of around EUR 10m annually from the merged activities. During the summer, the subsidiary had decided to close a sales office in Denmark and combine two plants in Sweden. As for Uponor Suomi, the savings measures are a direct reaction to weak demand from the Finnish construction sector.

With a goal to improve European performance, the company announced in April it was shuffling management – see Plasteurope.com of 05.04.2013. Primarily serving markets in Europe and North America, the company, located along the country's southern coast, counts 3,000 employees in 30 countries. The Finns' 2012 revenues stagnated somewhat at EUR 811m due mostly to a weakened European market – see Plasteurope.com of 22.02.2013.