The management of Hitachi Construction Machinery Europe NV (HCME) intends to move the production and assembly activities currently taking place in Oosterhout to the existing HCME production location in Amsterdam.
The works council and the trade unions have been discussing the proposal for a few days now. In order to meet the growing demands of European salesmen and to take advantage of economies of scale, HCME plans to divide and specialise its production between the Netherlands and Japan. However, the completion of the transition will take some time and is not expected until December 2021 at the earliest.
In the Netherlands it will focus on the production of customised machines for European retailers to meet market demands in terms of saving them unnecessary activities, such as removing and replacing the cabin to install for instance a heating device. The organization sees a growing demand for these tailor-made machines.
Instead, production and assembly of standard machines will continue in Japan. Additionally, investments will be made in innovations in the areas like service, parts, training and lease/rental.
Consultation with the trade unions is necessary as this could result in the potential loss of 115 jobs. The meager results in recent years, the changing market demand and the current economic conditions made it necessary for HCME to come to this decision.
The company promises to make every effort to support its employees in finding other work, either within the company or outside through outplacement.
Source: Hitachi
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