Following negotiations with the workforce, Finnish pipe manufacturer Uponor (Vantaa / Finland; www.uponor.com), has confirmed that its chamber prefabrication units in Jyväskylä and Tuusula will be closed and production relocated to plants at Vaasa and Nastola, all in Finland – see Plasteurope.com of 05.08.2014. The moves are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2015.

Together, Uponor Infra – a joint venture of Uponor (55.3%) and KWH Group (44.7 %) – and the wholly owned subsidiary Uponor Suomi will terminate the contracts of 70 employees. In addition, there will be 26 staff reduction as a result of expiring temporary contracts and voluntary retirement, the company said. Just over half of the redundancies will affect the Vaasa site, with the remaining job losses to be distributed between Tuusula, Nastola and Jyväskylä.

Uponor said the streamlining is aimed at cost saving in response to a weak domestic market environment, as well as at increasing shared services operations. The company said the restructuring would necessitate a non-recurring charge against operating profit of EUR 1.5m in the third and fourth quarters of 2014.