Restructuring events
European Restructuring Monitor (ERM)
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.
At the beginning of April 2008 further job cuts at PIN group, a postal delivery service owned by publishing company Axel Springer, were announced in the business daily Handelsblatt. Out of 40 PIN group affiliates who had filed for insolvency 25 will be closed down, 10 will be sold and one affiliate will continue its business. Around 2200 employees are affected by the closure of the 25 PIN affiliates. Affected are PIN affiliates in Brakel (523 employees), Hamm (517 employees), Soest (190 employees), Neumünster (86 employees), Lübeck (264 employees), Passau (145 employees), Frankfurt (130 employees), Ingolstadt (123 employees) as well as Hamburg (150 employees). Pin Group announced on 24 February 2008 that it is to cut 100 jobs at the insolvent regional mail delivery subsidiary at Mainz. Operations will stop in the first week of March when wage payments by the Federal Employment Agency will end. There is no information whether any of the affected workers will be reemployed by an external partner of Pin Group that is expected to continue operations shortly after. In 2007, PIN Group had already announced that it is to cut 1,000 jobs across Germany. 100 jobs will be cut in Hamburg, 230 will be cut in Lower Saxony, 250 jobs will be cut in Hesse and 300 jobs will be cut in North Rhine-Westphalia. PIN Group has notified the local employment agencies of its plans to cut the jobs. As of December 2007, there is no information on where the other job cuts will take place, but the organization is considering implementing redundancies in Bavaria and in other regions. PIN Group employs 9,000 in Germany. Pin Group filed for insolvency for 37 out of its 91 subsidiaries when a minimum wage was extended to the postal delivery sector in November 2007 (Posted Workers Act). In these subsidiaries minimum wages are paid by the Federal Employment Agency for a duration of three months. The company announced massive job cuts in most of its subsidiaries in the upcoming weeks. The 37 insolvent subsidiaries employ a total of 7,500 workers. FAZ quotes rumors saying that Pin Group aims to shut down its operations and to instead cooperate with delivery services of publishing companies which are not obliged to pay minimum wages. Handelsblatt says publishing companies are interested in a fragmentation of PIN Group and in buying regional subsidiaries.
Eurofound (2007), PIN, Bankruptcy in Germany, factsheet number 66092, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/66092.
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