Swedish battery developer Northvolt has introduced plans to let go of round 1 / 4 of its workforce in Sweden, as introduced by the corporate this week in a bid to reply to a “difficult macroeconomic local weather.”
In a press launch shared on Monday, Northvolt introduced that it’s dealing with a redundancy of 1,600 positions resulting from a revised scope of operations throughout its services in Sweden. As a substitute, the corporate is pivoting its focus towards ramping cell manufacturing at its first 16GWh manufacturing capability at Northvolt Ett.
Northvolt says its efforts to scale back operations and prices to sustainable ranges want to incorporate the discount of world workforce by roughly 20 %, together with a discount to whole employees in Sweden by about 25 %. The battery maker presently has between 6,000 and 6,500 whole workers.
The layoffs shall be comprised of round 1,000 roles at Skellefteå, 400 at Västerås, and 200 on the Stockholm web site. Regardless of the choice, the discharge additionally notes that the redundancies are nonetheless topic to union negotiations, that are nonetheless ongoing.
Northvolt is immediately saying preliminary steps to be taken as a part of its strategic evaluate. In streamlining operations, Northvolt will initially concentrate on large-scale cell manufacturing while decreasing prices and exploring future strategic partnerships → https://t.co/gym7OJVy6N pic.twitter.com/CW8z9XQRWE
— Northvolt (@northvolt) September 9, 2024
“Whereas general momentum for electrification stays robust, we have to make it possible for we take the appropriate actions on the proper time in response to headwinds within the automotive market, and wider industrial local weather,” writes Northvolt Co-Founder and CEO Peter Carlsson. “We now have to focus all vitality and investments into our core enterprise. Success within the ramp-up of manufacturing at Northvolt Ett is essential for delivering to our prospects and enabling sustainable enterprise operations.”
Though the corporate had been engaged on increasing the Northvolt Ett plant so as to add an extra 30 GWh of annual capability, it stated earlier this month that it might be suspending these plans in the interim. Plans to gradual packages and additional enlargement plans in Västerås have additionally been placed on pause, although basic platforms hosted on the Northvolt Labs web site will proceed their concentrate on product improvement.
In Stockholm, a lot of the layoffs will apply to company help capabilities, as a part of the bigger measures to scale back its scope of operations. Regardless of this, Northvolt is already in dialogue with union representatives on how one can proceed, and it’s already began mobilizing inside sources to assist help the transition of affected workers.
“Our precedence is to supply as a lot help as doable throughout this time to all our workers, particularly these impacted by redundancy,” stated Daniela Maniaci, Northvolt’s Chief Folks Officer. “In supporting workers who will go away the corporate, we’re dedicated to dealing with the method with compassion and care, and guaranteeing everybody receives steering wanted for his or her subsequent steps.”
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