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.
The Dutch car manufacturer VDL Nedcar in Born (southern Netherlands), part of the family-owned business conglomerate VDL Groep, has announced two major orders from BMW which will generate 1,200 manufacturing and machine operation jobs. VDL Nedcar will start producing two new models of the Mini, one of them from 31 October 2016 onwards, following two earlier models it has been building since 2014. New hires will be on temporary contracts for the time being because of the company's dependence on BMW, as VDL Nedcar explains, but the company is in negotiation with possible other clients. Among the new hires are also several hundred public benefits recipients who are receiving training at the VDL Nedcar vocational training facility. As of November 2016, it is not known when the new jobs will be implemented by. The Born manufacturing plant, previously owned by Mitsubishi, was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2012. The VDL Groep owner bought it for a symbolic amount of €1, invested in 1,200 production robots, won an order from BMW and resumed production in the summer of 2014. The initial BMW order had guaranteed production until 2020 and saved much employment in the area. Regional authorities are now preparing a railway connection for the production facility, hoping to make the facility even more attractive to car manufacturers. VDL Nedcar is part of the family-owned business conglomerate VDL Groep, engaged in the development and production of the manufacturing of finished and semi-finished products, buses and coaches. It has production facilities in several European countries and sales offices worldwide.
Updated, 10/11/2016: In November 2016 it was announced that this order is expected to generate an additional 1,000 jobs between November 2016 and the summer of 2017. An optimistic scenario even projects 1,800 new jobs on top of the earlier 1,200. However, it is unclear whether this concerns direct hires or hires through temporary work agencies.
Updated, 25/01/2017: On 25 January 2017, VDL Nedcar announced that another order was placed by BMW, adding another 800 jobs. This time it is for the BMW X1, for which extra production capacity is needed due to high global demand. Production is expected to start in the summer of 2017.
Updated, 23/08/2017: VDL Nedcar announced, after complaints from the trade unions about the high workload, that a total of 2,000 temporary agency workers working at the factory will be offered a direct employment contract by the end of 2018, either in the form of a permanent contract or a one-year temporary contract.
Eurofound (2016), VDL Nedcar, Business expansion in Netherlands, factsheet number 89011, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://dev.eurofound.europa.eu/restructuring-events/detail/89011.
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