Frigoglass to bring part of foreign production home to Greece
Greek refrigerator equipment maker Frigoglass will move part of its production from Romania and Turkey back home in an effort to keep its domestic plant operating and secure about 100 jobs in the austerity-hit country, it said on Wednesday.
Stuck in its sixth year of recession and with record unemployment of nearly 28 percent, Greece has seen its biggest listed firm, the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, move its headquarters and stock market listing abroad this year to avoid higher taxes.
Viohalco, the country’s biggest metals-processing group, last month decided on a similar move.
Frigoglass is a worldwide equipment supplier to Coca-Cola HBC and brewers such as Heineken.
Workers at its domestic plant have been on a three-day work schedule in the last two years, hit by soft demand for coolers around the world.
Frigoglass said it will initially invest 500,000 to 800,000 euros in the unit and has proposed to workers a five-day week along with a wage cut, a company official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
[Reuters]
