French group Michelin will relocate some 60 workplaces from its flagship factory located at Stoke-on-Trent in the United Kingdom to Eastern Europe, of which 22 to Romania (Bucharest) by the end of next year, and 39 to Poland (Warsaw) until September 2025, according to Profit.ro.

In an increasingly competitive labor market, the lower labor productivity invoked by foreign investors for paying lower wages in Eastern Europe was not an obstacle for Michelin – which closed three factories in Germany due to a "lack of competitiveness."

"In the highly competitive markets in Europe, Michelin is constantly being forced to extract value from the market while working on cost structures to achieve sustainable profitability in the UK and Ireland. Consultations are now due to begin to reduce or prevent redundancies," the company commented.

Earlier this year, Michelin announced plans to close its factory dedicated to heavy truck tires in Poland, at Olsztyn, where about 430 employees work, and relocate part of the production to Romania, arguing through the lower costs on the Romanian market.

Michelin has over 4,911 employees in Romania, and operates three factories (2 in Zalău and one in Florești), a commercial network, and a shared services center.

At the end of last year, the company announced the closure of three production units in Germany and the transfer of the customer service center to Poland, indicating "the lack of competitiveness of our German operations for the European and export markets."

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Dreamstime.com)