Uponor Corporation Stock exchange release 4 August 2014 9:10 EET
Uponor plans streamlining measures in Finland
Uponor's subsidiaries Uponor Infra Oy and Uponor Suomi Oy have today invited their staff to co-determination negotiations that will last a minimum of six weeks. The negotiations will affect all 520 or so of Uponor Infra Oy's employees in Finland. Within Uponor Suomi Oy, only shared services with around twenty employees are subject to the negotiations. There is a possible overall need for 100 staff reductions.
Uponor Infra Oy is continuing the streamlining of its operations with the aim of improving the profitability of its badly flagging Finnish infrastructure solutions business and to achieve its long-term financial goals, in order to secure the company's continued development and renewal. Uponor Infra aims to achieve savings of around €5 million during 2015. In addition to staff reductions, possible measures include reorganisations of production.
In addition, the possibility of eliminating overlaps in shared support functions will be investigated alongside the joint venture Uponor Infra Oy, which began operating in July of last year, and Uponor Suomi Oy, which provides building solutions.
“Over the last year we have completed a major transformation and closely integrated two formerly separate companies. Unfortunately, Finland's extremely weak market situation is forcing us to continue to adjust operations, in order to secure our future profitability and assure our customers that our services will remain first class,” explains Sebastian Bondestam , President of Uponor Infra Oy.
Uponor Infra and Uponor Suomi have pipe production in Vaasa and Nastola, as well as smaller production units in Jyväskylä and Tuusula. Uponor Infra is under the ownership of Uponor Corporation (55.3 %) and KWH Group (44.7 %). Uponor Suomi is a wholly owned subsidiary of Uponor Corporation. The co-determination negotiations will not affect Uponor Corporation's other companies in Finland or elsewhere.
For further information, please contact:
Sebastian Bondestam, President of Uponor Infra Oy, at 9.30-12.00 EET , tel. +358 (0)20 129 2846
Uponor Corporation
Tarmo Anttila
Vice President, Communications
tel, +358 (0)20 129 2852
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Uponor is a leading supplier of indoor climate and plumbing systems for the residential and commercial building markets in Europe and North America. In Northern Europe, Uponor is also a prominent regional supplier of municipal infrastructure pipe systems. Uponor employs approximately 4,100 people in 30 countries. Uponor Group reported net sales of over EUR 900 million in 2013. Uponor's shares are quoted on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd. http://www.uponor.com .
