Up to 90 of 120 employees lose their jobs at Afag Automation AG in Zell LU.
A product of Afag 2017. (archive recording) – KEYSTONE/EPA/MARKUS HIBBELER
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The US-based Emerson Electric Co, which took over Afag in September 2023, justified the move with the “difficult financial situation of the Afag Group”.
Emerson is planning to end production at the Zell site, a company spokeswoman confirmed in writing in response to a CH Media report on Friday. Production should be relocated to other Group locations in Europe.
The spokeswoman explained that the step is expected to have an impact on a maximum of 90 Afag employees in Zell. Emerson plans to realign the Zell site as an engineering and sales center,
Orientation as an engineering and sales center
Afag staff were informed on Thursday. According to the spokeswoman, the consultation phase is currently underway.
The job cuts are expected to be completed in the next 18 to 24 months, it said. Emerson is trying to find “possible alternative employment relationships” and to implement the “upcoming changes as socially acceptable as possible”.
The assembly machine manufacturer Afag was founded in Huttwil BE in 1956 under the name Apparatefabrik AG. In 2001 it was taken over by Feintool AG and in 2011 by the Schaeff Group. In 2021 the company headquarters was moved from Huttwil to Zell. For several months now, Emerson Electric has been part of Saint Louis, Missouri.
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