Emhart Glass has announced it is to reorganise its global production and engineering capability with the aim of putting it closer to customers worldwide while improving flexibility, cost efficiency and profitability. It will make 210 redundancies in Europe and the USA as part of the restructure. About 160 jobs will be lost at is Sundsvall plant, Sweden and the remainder in the USA. About 50 jobs will be created in Malaysia to build up facilities. It said there had been a shift in demand in recent years from high-end glassmaking and inspection equipment towards affordable standard and mid-range machines. It said it had responded to this change by making sure its production, engineering and supply-chain setup was adapted to these market conditions. It will focus its production and engineering sites in Europe and the USA on the high-end machine segment, while concentrating the production of mid-range machines in Asia. Its Sundsvall plant will focus on high-end glass-forming machines such as NIS and BIS, the flagships of the Emhart Glass range. The parts distribution centre, based at Sundsvall, will be outsourced to a global logistics firm, with warehouses in Europe, the US and Asia. Critical high-quality parts will be produced in the Swedish Örebro parts manufacturing plant for all machine types and machine production locations. Capacity at its Johor Bahru, Malaysia facility will be increased, with emphasis on complete standard forming and inspection machines. An engineering team for forming and inspection machines will also be established.
