US company Glatfelter has announced that it is closing its Ober-Schmitten, Germany, facility due to the ongoing financial underperformance of the electrical and glassine specialty papers manufactured at the site.
The Ober-Schmitten facility, part of the Composite Fibers segment, has approximately 180 employees and is located in Nidda, Germany, with an associated sales office in Suzhou, China. The site's production capacity ranges between 7,000 tpy and 8,000 tpy.
The Ober-Schmitten Economic Committee and Works Council were notified of the closure and negotiations regarding a compromise of interest and social plan will begin immediately.
“This site has faced continued challenges from escalating energy, raw material and labour inflation, increased competition, and most recently, declining markets,” said Thomas Fahnemann, President and CEO of the company. “We increased prices for the electrical and glassine products in the fourth quarter of 2022 to avoid further losses and subsequently, we lost meaningful business to our competition. Through this process, it became evident that Glatfelter is unable to compete in this market without a significant investment to streamline operations and substantially reduce the site’s overall manufacturing costs for these non-core products.
