The restructuring events database contains factsheets with data on large-scale restructuring events reported in the principal national media and company websites in each EU Member State. This database was created in 2002.
Manufacturing Manufacture of food and beverage Manufacture of food products 10.20 - Processing and preserving of fish, crustaceans and molluscs
New offshoring locations
Poland
95 jobs Number of planned job losses
Announcement Date
9 May 2025
Employment effect (start)
9 June 2025
Foreseen end date
30 June 2025
Description
Espersen, one of Europe's largest fish processors, has announced the closure of its plant in Klaipėda and the transfer of production to Koszalin in Poland. Espersen Lietuva, which operated in the Klaipėda free economic zone, was mainly active in the processing and preservation of shellfish and molluscs.
The company informed PES that it would lay off 95 of its 288 employees. The main redundancies are of production workers (72) and equipment washing operators (11). Atlas Premium Lietuva, owned by Norway's Hofseth International, plans to acquire the Klaipėda plant. The 95 workers currently being made redundant do not agree to continue working after the change of ownership, while the other 193 will remain in the Klaipėda factory.
According to Espersen, the decision to transfer production from Lithuania to Poland is part of the strategic consolidation of the company's European operations and is linked to changing market conditions and the need to optimise operational efficiency. Espersen specialises in the processing of frozen fish blocks, fillets and breadcrumbed fish products, mainly cod, haddock and saithe. In addition to plants in Poland and Lithuania, the company also has operations in Denmark, the UK and Vietnam.
Eurofound (2025), Espersen Lietuv, Offshoring/Delocalisation in Lithuania, factsheet number 202820, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/202820.
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
The retail banking sector is fertile ground for studying the impacts of digitalisation on work and employment. Financial services are increasingly provided online, without the intermediary of customer-facing institutions.
European labour markets have recovered strongly from COVID-19. By the end of 2021, little more than 18 months after the start of the pandemic, employment rates in the EU were almost at pre-crisis levels.
