After negotiations with employee representatives, Volvo Buses is to close a bus body plant in Tampere, Finland, and will also reorganise operations at the body plant in Turku to increase competitiveness. In total, 237 employees face the axe.
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“Currently, Volvo Buses has an overcapacity in its European bus body production system and foresees that this will be the case also in the coming years. The intention is to adjust production capacity as a part of the strategy to strengthen [our] profitability,” the company said in a statement.
The automaker makes bus bodies at the two plants in Finland, in Wroclaw, Poland, and in Säffle, Sweden. Tampere and Wroclaw both manufacture the 8700 bus model but Poland has spare capacity so it is more efficient to make all there, Volvo said.
Production of the 9700 coach model in Turku will be focused on Nordic markets.
Tampere production will end in August.
During the first quarter, Volvo booked charges of SEK120m for the rationalisation.
