Danish Employees Too Expensive For Coloplast

Coloplast, one of the world's leading suppliers of health-care articles, has decided to relocate about half of its 900 manufacturing jobs in the company's home country of Denmark to facilities in Hungary and China. The main reason: Cheaper labor costs. 143 employees will be informed of their dismissal between October 19 and October 23, and the rest will follow soon. According to the head of Coloplast's global manufacturing the Danish company has no choice but to relocate, if it wants to remain one of the leading contenders on the market.

"It's hard to say goodbye to so many people who've worked well for Coloplast. But our customers are primarily in the public sector, and they keep on pressuring us to get the lowest possible prices. That means that we constantly have to monitor our expenses, including moving our bulk manufacturing to countries with lower labor costs than Denmark", says Allan Rasmussen, the global manufacturing chief.

Danfoss plans to concentrate its remaining Danish manufacturing operations as much as possible, and will also start turning its facilities in Thisted and Moerdrup into innovation and competency centers. Coloplast's corporate headquarters will remain in Humlebaek, north of Copenhagen.  

Full story in Danish

News category: Denmark