Kekkilä-BVB has started consultation processes concerning two production sites in Central Europe

As part of its efficiency programme, Kekkilä-BVB has launched a preliminary study of measures to optimize the fixed costs of growing media production in Central Europe. The focus is on optimizing production volumes of all growing media, location of the production facilities and logistic costs to meet the current and expected market demand in the next few years. Based on the review, Kekkilä-BVB has a preliminary plan to close production in Georgsdorf, Germany and Hardenberg, the Netherlands.

According to the preliminary plans, production could be organized more efficiently in Kekkilä- BVB’s other production sites. The initial plan is to transfer the growing media production from the Georgsdorf site in Germany to the production sites in the Netherlands and the gardening production of the Hardenberg site to the Drachten site in the Netherlands. The contemplated changes would affect a maximum of 43 positions, of which 33 are located in Georgsdorf and 10 in Hardenberg. Kekkilä-BVB has sent an invitation for advice to the German and Dutch employee representatives to go through the plans.

“We foresee changes in the market, driven by customer and consumer demand, combined with a high level of competition. New, circular raw materials will have a huge impact on our operations, impacting our supply chains and equipment. As Kekkila-BVB we are in a transition period, where we are optimizing our production grid and investing in our core production facilities to be ready for the future,” says Jarmo Santala, Senior Vice President, Business Area Central Europe, Kekkilä-BVB.

The optimization of Kekkilä-BVB’s operations started last year in the Nordics, where the company closed the production facilities in Haukineva, Finland and Bredaryd, Sweden.

“This year we have reviewed the situation of the production operations also in Central Europe. With the reorganization of production that is planned to be carried out now, we would be able to produce current growing media products more effectively and we would still have the capacity in our factories to facilitate the planned growth”, he continues.

More information

• Jarmo Santala, Kekkilä-BVB, Senior Vice President, Business Area Central Europe tel. +358 40 801 9191
• Ahti Martikainen, Neova, Director, Communications and Public Affairs, tel. +358 40 680 4723