Pirelli to cease tyre manufacture at Manresa plant

ERJ staff report (DS)

Milan, Italy -- Pirelli has announced plans to cease tyre manufacture at its car tyre plant in Manresa, just outside Barcelona. The company said tyre production will cease at year-end, although the company intends to put alternative operations there, which will continue to employ people, but not in tyre manufacture.

The plant currently employs 491 workers, of whom 360 are full time and 131 are on working part-time as part of a phased retirement process. Pirelli said this amounts to 380 full time equivalents. Mid-way through 2008 the unit employed 700, but 200 were let go in the Autumn. 

All the remaining employees will be made redundant, but at least 130 will be re-employed in a variety of roles, said a spokeswoman for Pirelli. 

The spokeswoman said Pirelli intends to bring the tyre logistics function for the Spain and Portugal region in-house. That function has previously been out-sourced, but will in future be handled by former Manresa workers. The company also intends to set up one or two tyre recycling operations at the plant and has re-trained some of the engineers to act as solar collector engineers. 

Pirelli said there is a lot of mis-information currently being published in the Spanish press, and that Pirelli would not hire new workers, but would re-employ existing workers on the new projects. Pirelli said it made the initial announcement about the plant closure in February, but it has  only now come to light.