Volvo Buses

Australia

Press release

Volvo Buses plans to close plant in Tampere, Finland

2008-03-05
Volvo Buses
The Board of Directors of Volvo Bus Finland Oy has decided to initiate negotiations with representatives of the employees with the intention to close the bus body plant in Tampere. It is also about to reorganize operations at the body plant in Turku to increase the competitiveness. In total, approx. 300 employees could be affected.
Currently, Volvo Buses has an overcapacity in its European bus body production system and foresees that this will be the case also in the coming years. The intention is to adjust production capacity as a part of the strategy to strengthen Volvo Buses’ profitability.

Volvo Buses European bus body production system consists of the two plants in Finland, in Wroclaw, Poland, and in Säffle, Sweden. The plants in Tampere and Wroclaw both manufacture the Volvo 8700 bus model. The plant in Poland has spare capacity and by concentrating the production of the Volvo 8700 to Wroclaw, Volvo Buses can obtain more cost-efficient production.

In Turku, the plan is to reorganize to enhance the competitiveness of the operations. The production of the Volvo 9700 coach model in Turku will be focused on the Nordic markets.

According to Finnish law, the representatives of the employees now have the right to six weeks of negotiations before a final decision can be taken.

March 5, 2008

For further information, please contact Per-Martin Johansson, Press Officer, +46 31 322 52 00