Paroc Group announced on 10 January 2017 its plans to shut down the operations of the stone wool factory in Oulu, including the transfer and centralisation of support functions currently in Oulu to other Paroc factories and locations. At the same time, the company initiated the cooperation procedures related to the plant shutdown.
The statutory cooperation negotiations with the personnel related to the shutdown have now been concluded. During the negotiations, no economic grounds for continuing operations at the Oulu stone wool factory were found to exist and the unit will be shut down in July 2017. Personnel reduction due to the closure is in total 64 people, which includes the entire production personnel in Oulu. For other activities, 5 positions will move to other Paroc locations. The cooperation negotiations concerned approximately 70 people, which means the entire personnel in Oulu excluding operative sales personnel.
“The decision to shut down the factory was difficult due to the considerable impact it will have on the personnel. However, the utilisation rate of the current capacity of Finnish stone wool factories is too low to ensure competitive operations in Finland. The factory located in Oulu is old and, in addition to the already high cost structure, continuing operations would require significant investments in the near future,” says Kari Lehtinen, CEO of Paroc Group.
Paroc is initiating measures to support reemployment. “We will support our personnel in finding new jobs within Paroc as well as outside the company by means of job search coaching and different measures in cooperation with the authorities”, Lehtinen says.
The production of building insulation will be moved mainly to the Paroc factory in Parainen. The support functions will be moved to other Paroc locations. Paroc is committed to the Finnish market and wants to continue to serve its customers with high-quality products and services. The transfer of operations will not cause interruptions to deliveries to customers. After closing down the factory, Paroc will continue deliveries to Northern Finland directly from its factories and additionally from a delivery point to be established in the area.
Further information:
Kari Lehtinen, CEO, Paroc Group Oy, tel. +358 46 876 8904
Interview requests:
Olga van Iterson, Group Marketing Communications Director, Paroc Group Oy, tel. +358 50 325 2376
