“Fears have become reality”: Germany's oldest paint factory is over

Created: 06/25/2022, 18:00

By: Matthias Dahmer

The closure of the paint factory Schramm Coatings in Offenbach affects 150 employees.

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The oldest paint factory in Germany, Schramm Coatings GmbH on Kettelerstraße in Offenbach, is closed.

Around 150 employees are affected.

Offenbach - "The fears of the works council and the employees of the paint manufacturer Schramm Coatings have become reality," says a press release from the employee representatives, which speaks of "bad news" for the employees.

Managing Director Luc van den Hemel confirmed the end of the Offenbach site.

Schramm Coatings, which belongs to the Dutch paint multinational Akzo Nobel and manufactures coatings for the automotive industry, has only made losses for years.

They tried to reorganize, but that didn't help.

In addition, van den Hemel refers to the difficult situation in the automotive industry, as reported by op-online.de.

Closure of the paint factory in Offenbach was planned: 150 employees affected

Contrary to previous statements by the management, the Offenbach site will now be closed after all, according to the works council.

Its chairman Tuncay Delikus specifies: "By the end of this year, the reconciliation of interests and the social plan should be in place, from January 2023 it will be outsourced to other locations and in August 2024 it will finally be over."

From the point of view of the works council, the closure primarily has nothing to do with the difficulties in the automotive industry or other economic problems, but was planned by the management of Akzo Nobel over many years.

It is particularly bitter that the employees fought for "their" company with a lot of commitment and sacrifice.

Among other things, the shift allowance was waived.

“And then we are presented with a fait accompli without prior notice,” said the works council.

"Especially since we kept asking about the plans for Offenbach and always got wrong information, as it turns out now."

Paint factory in Offenbach closes: works council wants a fair balance of interests

Schramm Coatings has belonged to Akzo Nobel since 2011.

"Big promises were made at the beginning, but none of them came true," says Works Council Chairman Delikus.

Instead, the turnover and the number of employees went downhill rapidly.

Delikus: “In 2011, 283 employees turned over more than 68 million euros.

Last year it was only 26.7 million euros, the number of employees has almost halved.” The powder department was already outsourced in 2012.

Two years later, the Coil Coating department said goodbye, and two years later Purchasing and Sales were restructured – all of which always involved a reduction in the workforce.

The next restructuring and layoffs took place in 2019, and a year later synthetic resin production was also outsourced.

The works council announces that it will fight for a fair reconciliation of interests and a good social plan in the interests of the employees in the upcoming negotiations.

(Matthias Dahmer)

The health food store "BioEck" in Offenbach also closed, but only to come back with a new concept

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