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Schaeffler to cut 3,460 jobs in Europe and close four German sites
Schaeffler is launching another performance improvement programme, which will cut a net 3,460 positions in Europe, around 2,660 of them in Germany. Five sites are to close, four of them in Germany. The company cites weak demand for combustion engine vehicles and a slower-than-expected ramp-up of electric mobility.
The cuts will affect 16 sites in Europe, according to a press release from Schaeffler. About half of the positions are in production, 30% in R&D and 20% in other functions. Implementation is scheduled mainly for 2027 and 2028.
In Germany, Schaeffler plans to close the plants in Dortmund, which employs 430 people, and Morbach, with 160 employees. Both belong to the Powertrain & Chassis division and make products for combustion engines. Operations at the Berlin site, which has about 270 employees, will be discontinued, and the Schwalbach site will be closed. Many of the roughly 385 employees at those two sites are expected to move to Schaeffler’s site in Frankfurt, but about 190 positions will be cut. Outside Germany, the Herstal site in Belgium, with around 15 employees, will close. Capacity will also be reduced at the sites in Haguenau and Toulouse in France, and in Skalica and Kysuce in Slovakia.
The 2,660 positions correspond to about 9% of Schaeffler’s core workforce in Germany, which stood at 31,957 employees at the end of September. Including earlier programmes and the 1,800 partial retirement agreements signed in October, the figure rises to around 18%.
Alongside the job cuts, Schaeffler plans what it calls a solidarity contribution: among other measures, a temporary, voluntary pay cut across all levels, starting with the Board of Managing Directors. According to the company, the cuts would otherwise have been even larger.
Schaeffler expects the programme to improve earnings by around EUR 300 million a year from 2030, with one-time costs of around EUR 480 million. Most of that will be booked as restructuring provisions as early as this year. The company also hopes to offset part of the cuts with new positions in growth areas.
“In addition to our focus on further developing our core business, the Schaeffler Group has promising growth opportunities in future-oriented fields, particularly in the areas of humanoid robotics and defense,” says Jochen Schröder, Chief Operating Officer at Schaeffler.
