BASF to close its factory in Barcelona metropolitan area

Barcelona (ACN).- BASF announced this Monday that it will close its production centre in the town of Palau-Solità i Plegamans, located within the Barcelona metropolitan area. The plant is used for construction materials and operated by BASF Construction Chemicals. The official reason: “to adapt its business” regarding construction products and “to face the continuous market slowdown”. After past restructurings, only 30 people currently work in the plant. The company will concentrate its production in the 2 centres it has in Guadalajara and Madrid from mid-2011 onwards. These changes will provoke a change in the sales, marketing and administrations departments’ structures, all located in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, at the heart of Barcelona’s metropolitan area.

The person in charge of BASF activities in Southern Europe, Erwin Rahue, stated that the new location of the production centres “will better logistics” regarding the company’s products. “In order to face the challenges of an increasingly competitive environment, we must optimise the use of the production facilities in the most sustainable way”, he added.

BASF justified closing the Palau-Solità i Plegamans plant, located within Barcelona’s metropolitan area, and concentrating BASF Construction Chemicals’ construction products in the same geographic area as a matter of “optimisation” of product logistics. BASF Construction Chemicals works on investigating, developing, fabricating and distributing chemical products for the construction sector. It will concentrate its production in the Cabanillas del Campo and Marchamalo plants, both in Guadalajara, and the Mejorada del Campo plant in Madrid. All 3 are quite close. BASF also has a production centre in Navarra, which has not been affected yet. This restructuring will affect the related sales, marketing and administration departments, located in L’Hospitalet del Llobregat, just outside of Barcelona.

BASF’s restructuring plans foresee a 14% reduction of collaborators, which are 306 in total. Company sources indicated that the company has already started negotiations with unions and the workers to look for “socially responsible solutions regarding the collaborators affected by this measure”.