The family-owners of Karmann have said they would consider selling the company.
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In an interview with Handelsblatt, a spokesperson said: “The family is considering all its options.”
Supervisory board member, Heinz Pfeffer, was quoted as saying that, “if an investor were to come to ensure the company’s future, we would not be against it in principle.”
Karmann has been hit by the lack of replacement contracts for expiring contract assembly work and last year the company announced that it would cut 1,800 jobs, or around a quarter of its workforce, at its plants in Rheine and Osnabrueck because of a decline in contracts for outsourced vehicle assembly. The vehicle assembly division at Rheine is due to be shut down completely in the autumn of 2008, with the loss of 900 jobs, out of a total of 1,050.
Part of the reason for the decline is Audi’s decision to cease outsourcing assembly of the A4 convertible. In addition, Karmann has also lost contracts to assemble the Chrysler Crossfire and the Mercedes CLK. Vehicle manufacturers’ production systems have become a lot more flexible and it is much easier for them to build niche vehicles in-house.
Karmann was reportedly in the bidding to win the contract to assemble the Mini SAV, but narrowly lost out to Magna_Steyr at the end of last year. There have been reports that Karmann was also not successful in winning a contract to assemble a Kia cabriolet.
Karmann’s highly skilled workforce could be attractive to Chinese or Indian vehicle manufacturers seeking to assemble in Europe or engineer vehicles for the European market.
