Factories shut one after another
The rapid deindustrialization of the country has led to the shutdown of at least 18 production units in the last five years from 2012 to 2016.
The latest such incident was the termination of the Pepsico-Ivi plant at Viotia, central Greece, on October 31. Three months earlier, on August 2, listed wire and wire ropes producer Leventeris had shut down its plant near Volos.
Moderate estimates by the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) say that “in order to offset the divestment the Greek economy has suffered in the last few years, it will take additional investments – on top of those implemented every year – of 100 billion euros up to 2022.”
SEV head Theodoros Fessas says that “in the last seven years, the productive fabric of the country has crumbled. Investments went down by 62 percent, with manufacturing and industrial activity paying the price of the recession.”
Among the firms to terminate their factory operations in 2015 were paper towel company Softex and packaging producer Vis, along with the ContiTech IMAS conveyor belt factory, which shut down in March 2015, meaning that 140 employees joined the long list of unemployed Greeks.
