ANTOLIN: Spanish auto supplier plans massive job cuts at former Magna plant in Bavaria

With automotive supplier Grupo Antolin (Burgos / Spain; www.grupoantolin.com), the record takeover last year of 36 global production plants for car interior parts from Magna (Aurora, Ontario / Canada; www.magnaint.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 28.06.2016 – is leading to a typical wave of consolidation. The latest victim seems to be the plant in the German town of Regenstauf (Bavaria), which Magna built only two years ago for EUR 16m. At that time, good long-term prospects were promised. As at its sister plant in Rastatt / Germany, the Spanish company produces plastic parts such as door trim and door sills for the BMW assembly lines in Regensburg and Dingolfing.

Reports from the IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie (Germany’s Union for the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industries, IG BCE, Hanover / Germany;www.igbce.de) indicate that there are plans to shed a large number of the present 300 jobs. Following an inquiry from PIE, Antolin spokesman Rafael Martinez Tomás said simply “We do not comment on such matters.” He did, however, continue by saying that “Antolin would do everything in its power to find a solution and meet its obligations to customers and employees.”

According to the union, which has since invited both the previous owners Magna and representatives from Antolin to a round-table meeting, the big BMW orders will run until 2018. From 2019, turnover would fall to 10% of its present size and, in the opinion of an IG BCE spokesman, make the economically functioning plant virtually untenable. Antolin apparently also sometimes produces there on commission for Magna.

Although BMW has given several large follow-up orders to Antolin that will extend beyond 2018, the parts that have so far been manufactured in Regenstauf will in future be produced at the plant in Massen, also in Germany. Should Antolin not respond, says IG BCE, negotiations will be arranged to draw up a collective social agreement for the plant’s closure.

Only recently, Antolin sold Burg Design (Steyr / Austria; www.burg-design.com), which also stems from the Magna takeover.