Overview

• Operations in Gerstungen, Thuringia, and Nentershausen, Hesse, will end at the close of the year, affecting 549 and 134 employees respectively.
• Management, the works council and IG Metall agreed on a transfer company and social plan offering up to six months’ pay, retraining and job-search support.
• After filing for insolvency last year, the company contacted about 160 potential investors but received no sustainable offer to take over operations.
• Insolvency administrator Romy Metzger cited sharply higher energy and raw-material costs, international uncertainty and an investor-unfriendly climate in Germany, with suppliers under added pressure following VW’s cost cuts.
• AE says customers in Thuringia and Hesse will continue to be supplied until the shutdowns, and its Polish sister company has already halted operations after its own insolvency filing.