Thousands impacted as Tristone idles production plants 

Frankfurt, Germany – Tristone Flowtech has suspended production at eight global manufacturing facilities due to Covid-19 pandemic – a move that has led to “substantial partial unemployment” across the company.

Some 4,000 employees have been sent on forced vacation while 5,200 are on partial unemployment across the company's global sites, said Guenter Froelich, president and CEO of Tristone 2 April.

The German hose maker idled its production plant in India in mid-March and suspended manufacturing in Italy, France, Spain, Poland and Slovakia at the end of the month. 

In addition, it has now shuttered its production units in Mexico and the US.

In addition, the firm is in discussions with workers at its headquarters in Frankfurt, its shared services centre in the Czech Republic, engineering centre in France and sales and engineering centre in the US to implement partial unemployment and similar measures.

According to the company, the shutdowns will continue for at least one to two weeks and as long as four weeks, depending on customer needs and the location of the facility.

Both of the firm's plants in China are currently running “at close to planned levels.” 

"At the moment we are not considering the release of temporary staffers in our production plants and central service companies, but this would be the next step if the situation would continue," he said.

As for the financial effects of the outbreak, Tristone said it was hard to predict the impact of the coming weeks.

“We assume at the moment that there will be a slow recovery of the economy starting end of April in Europe and beginning of May in NAFTA," chief financial officer Sonja Rossteuscher-Schuetze said in a statement.