Italian family-owned plastic household goods manufacturer Tontarelli (Castelfidaro; www.tontarelli.it), which specialises in injection moulded products such as clothespins, canisters, buckets and flower pots, is planning to build an additional production facility at Bascharage / Luxembourg. According to Luxembourg´s economics minister Jeannot Krecké, the plant, set to go on stream in 2009 employing 40 people, will cost EUR 8.5m to build. Tontarelli will operate 18 injection moulding lines at the site, which will encompass a distribution centre for Germany and the Benelux countries.

The group´s 28 employees at nearby Longlaville / France meanwhile fear their jobs could be moved to Bascharage, which is only a few kilometres away. As the French site offers no room for expansion, such a move could make sense. Altogether, Tontarelli employs 650 people at five injection moulding sites – in addition to Longlaville, two in Italy and one each in the Czech Republic and the UK. It also has two mould-making plants in Italy and sales offices at Mannheim / Germany and Barcelona / Spain. Group turnover in 2005 is estimated at EUR 90m.