In order to remain competitive in future years, the German manufacturer of building accessories Reuss-Seifert (Sprockhövel; www.reuss-seifert.de) is completely restructuring its organisation. This will involve shifting its entire production to Poland and leaving only sales, administration, plus technology and development in Sprockhövel. According to the company's CEO, Rüdiger Gniesmer, the previous corporate structure with five separate production plants and a warehouse, which resulted from the merger of the two predecessor companies Reuss and Seifert, has "little prospect of survival in the future."

For the production of spacers and sealing, fixing, reinforcing and formwork systems, Reuss-Seifert is currently building a new plant in the Polish town of Nowa Sól with a production area of 26,000 m² and warehouse space of 7,000 m². The intention is to have completed the move of the injection moulding activities by autumn, with the other corporate divisions of steel and concrete following next year. If everything runs according to plan at the new site, the workforce should be around 170. About one third of the employees will be working in the plastics segment with around 120 injection moulding machines.

All Reuss-Seifert's five current plants in Germany will be closed, and as a result of the reorganisation, around 190 employees will lose their jobs. Gniesmer said that every effort will be made to find positions for the affected staff at other companies in the region. Around 30 employees will remain at the company's headquarters in Sprockhövel, where the research and development department will be realigned and expanded.

The cost of all these measures – including the purchase of the 90,000 m² site at the future production venue in Poland – will run into tens of millions of euros. The investment has been made possible by Reuss-Seifert's new owner: At the beginning of last year, finance investor Aurelius (Munich / Germany; www.aureliusinvest.de) bought the company from the Irish construction group CRH. There, the company had operated under one roof with the construction film manufacturer Hammerl (Gemmrigheim / Germany; www.hammerl.de), where Gniesmer is also still a member of the management team.