160 jobs at Leoni's Stolberg site to be retained under new owners

On 31 March 2021, Leoni AG informed employee representatives and the employees of Leoni Kerpen GmbH of its intention to sell the data communication and compound businesses at the Stolberg site to a consortium of buyers led by David Schlenter, member of the management board of Leoni Kerpen GmbH. In the hands of the new owners, more than 160 jobs will be able to remain on the site. After announcing the discontinuation of all business activities at the Stolberg site in October 2020, Leoni says it did everything in its power to retain as many jobs as possible. Under the agreement now reached, the data communications and compound businesses are expected to be transferred to the consortium some time in the middle of this year. And as stated earlier, this would allow for more than 160 of the approximately 380 jobs to be retained at the site. "We are very pleased about the initial agreement with the potential buyers on the data communications and compound areas, which could preserve a significant number of jobs," says Aldo Kamper, CEO of Leoni AG, in a press release. "The decision to discontinue business activities at the Stolberg site was not an easy one for us. However, against the background of a continuing critical economic development of the site, we had to act. The agreement now reached is a positive signal for the future of the Stolberg site and a next step towards Leoni’s economic recovery." The business activities for the oil and gas industry at the Stolberg site will be discontinued, as announced in October 2020. The reason for this is the competitive and price pressure, which has intensified again in recent years and has led to a sharp decline in sales and high losses at Leoni for years. Despite major investments and efforts by all involved in recent years, it has not been possible to operate this business profitably at the Stolberg site. Production in the oil and gas business segment will end in Stolberg during the third quarter of 2021. The business activities from the automotive sector, which were temporarily brought to Stolberg as a measure to support capacity utilisation, will be discontinued and transferred back to the originally intended locations. This is expected to be completed in the course of the fourth quarter of 2021. Both the discontinuation of the Oil and Gas Industry business unit and the relocation of the Automotive activities will take place independently of the planned sale of the Data Communication and Compound businesses.