Fazer to close Estonia factory, 95 people to lose jobs

  • 2014-09-02
  • From wire reports, TALLINN

(photo: twitter)

Finnish bakery and confectionery firm Fazer will close its Tallinn factory making 95 people redundant, public broadcasting reports.

The firm said it would merge its production units in the Baltic states in an effort to cut costs. 

“The market situation in the Baltic countries is very challenging," said Petri Kujala, Managing Director of the Fazer Bakery Business Area.

"There is overcapacity in the Baltic bread market, and the consumption of pre-packed bread is declining. Consolidating the production we will increase our efficiency. Our 5 million euro investment in Latvia in new production facilities will open up new opportunities for us.” 

The company says it will invest more than 5 million euros in the bakery in Ogre, Latvia and plans to transfer the production from the bakery in Estonia to its bakeries in Latvia and Lithuania.

The close-down of the production unit in Tallinn in Estonia is planned to take place in April 2015.

Fazer has 18 bakeries in total. Six of them are located in Finland where Fazer also has 46 in-store bakeries in supermarkets. Five of the bakeries are located in Sweden and four in Russia. Fazer also has one bakery in each of the Baltic countries.