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A decline in the Dutch cycle market has led Accell Group to merge bike production facilities, resulting in the loss of 60 jobs in Holland.
Accell, owner of a number of bike brands, is merging production of bikes for Batavus (in Heerenveen) and Sparta (in Apeldoorn) in Heerenveen. The Juncker Bike Parts business will be moved to the vacated Apeldoorn location, while storage and shipment of service and warranty parts for Batavus, Koga and Sparta will come from the new warehouse in Apeldoorn.
Accell said that the relocation will result in a loss of approximately 60 jobs.
Accell is setting up a ‘from work to work’ programme but added that redundancies "will be inevitable". In addition, a number of employees will start working on a different location.
CEO of Accell Group René Takens said: “The further decline of the Dutch bicycle market forces us to make a more drastic adjustment with regard to the organization in the Netherlands. Combining the production activities of Batavus and Sparta enables us to achieve an acceptable capacity utilisation.
"Unfortunately this means we need to part from several loyal employees and call on the flexibility of the rest of the staff for the changes to work. We assume the proposed decisions are an appropriate response to the challenges of the market.”
The changes to the Dutch organisation, which has a total workforce of 595 employees, will be conducted in phases during the period from August this year until December 2014.
The structural cost savings for the Netherlands business will amount to €2 to 3 million on an annual basis from 2014 onwards. The recurring costs for which a provision will be taken in the results over 2013 are expected not to exceed the yearly cost savings, Accell added.
