ABB to close its business services center in Estonia, lay off 200 people

TALLINN – The international energy and automation technology group ABB announced that it will lay off 200 people in Estonia due to the closure of the global business services center in Tallinn's Ulemiste City.

According to ABB, the financial services part of the business services center will be relocated to the group's other locations in Krakow and Bangalore. The process is scheduled to be completed by August this year. The lay-off, which will take place in stages, will affect around 200 employees. In accordance with the rules of ABB Group as a listed company, precise subdivision-based economic indicators, including the number of employees, are not published.

"The decision was very difficult for us, we compared the structures of all our business services centers and evaluated all options very carefully," Peter Mitchell, head of global business services ABB Krakow, said. "Our main priority today is to support all workers affected by this restructuring," he added.

ABB Group's global business services center was opened in October 2016 in Tallinn's Ulemiste City. The following year, 276 people were recruited, the daily Postimees writes. At the beginning of the month, the company announced that it was developing in Estonia "on a stable and organic course, which is required by the changes taking place in the world economy and the need to react quickly to them".

The company is engaged in both sales and production in two factories, as well as providing maintenance and business services in the fields of electrification, automation, drives and robotics. In recent years, ABB has invested heavily in the development of digital solutions for industrial companies.

The customers of the two production units located in Estonia are mostly from abroad. In Estonia, the company's cooperation partners are larger wholesale companies and equipment manufacturers, as well as production and infrastructure companies and construction companies that need electrification and automation solutions either themselves or in their projects.

"ABB's role in the Estonian economy and society is growing all the time, there have been hundreds of companies and thousands of people connected with us over the course of 30 years," Jukka Patrikainen, managing director of ABB Baltics, said at the beginning of the month.

"Changes in technology have also meant new production processes for our partners. Over the years, we have brought many top international products to the domestic market, in the last few years, for example, products such as robotic solutions, electrification solutions for the transport segment, equipment life cycle maintenance packages and so on," he said.

ABB is a Swiss-Swedish multinational corporation headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, operating mainly in robotics, power, heavy electrical equipment and automation technology areas.

ABB has been active in Estonia since 1992 and its business here is divided into three areas: sale of equipment, systems, maintenance services and projects; manufacture of motors, generators, renewable energy equipment, electrical cabinets and substations; and accounting, supply chain management and human resources services.