Koyo Urgently Needs to Save Costs

The Hall roller bearing manufacturer Koyo urgently needs to save costs.

The Haller bearing manufacturer is going through hard times again. Because the figures for the current fiscal year remain well below expectations, the personnel expenses are to be reduced. The works council is skeptical

Hall .The crisis seemed to have been overcome. In 2015, the management wanted to reduce the number of employees from 630 to 520 at the Hall subsidiary of the Japanese Jtekt Group - instead, it rose to its current level of 712. At the beginning of last year, Plant Manager Christoph Holz was optimistic about the future and the order books seemed full. But now the worries are back.

At a staff meeting, the management of Koyo now informed about the predicament: The company had already recorded a drop in sales of about twelve percent in the past fiscal year, as Dieter Hohenbrink, responsible for the commercial area at Koyo, specified at the request of the Haller Kreisblatt .

Depending on the automotive industry

And business is not going better this year. The order volume stagnates. They had actually wished even fuller books. What Koyo strikes hard in this situation is its dependence on the automotive industry. With sales of 114 million euros, the company expects the current financial year, which runs until March 31, 65 to 67 million euros of which are in-house production, with the remaining sales being trading business. "However, 70 percent of the rolling bearings we produce are installed in cars," explains Hohenbrink.

But just the key industry is weakening as a buyer of Künsebecker currently: protectionist tendencies in the global economy, uncertainty about the economic development and the boom of e-cars are the reasons. "Electromobility hardly requires any more warehouses," says Dieter Hohenbrink: Establishing a parallel position in component manufacturing in order to become less dependent on the auto companies is difficult because Koyo is very specialized.

Because the parent company is also weakening, Koyo should now pull himself out of the mess. "The quota of personnel costs in relation to the turnover is with us with 53 per cent - requirement of Jtekt is to lower them to under 50 per cent", explain the commercial ladder.This year should be saved 1.2 million euro, in the It should even be two million euros - and that without any redundancies, as Dieter Hohenbrink emphasizes: "Among other things, we identified savings potentials for the incentive pay or the Christmas bonus, and we are hoping for a consensus with the union." Then the austerity program could work without layoffs and Koyo again become more attractive to its major customers. With those parallel discussions.

"We have to have a result by autumn"

According to the Künsebecker, it is difficult to swallow the last year's collective bargaining agreement with an increase of 4.3 percent for the employees. "It's hard to make a profit out of productivity," says the commercial boss, who has been with the company for 22 years and has been responsible for the entire business area for nine months.

Koyo wants to quickly talk with IG Metall, has already made proposals for dates. Time is short, because "we have to have a result by autumn to be able to realize the savings by March 31." However, the union is putting on the brakes: "The dates are ambitious," says Ute Herkströter, Erste Agents of IG Metall Bielefeld. "Of course, we have an interest in finding a socially responsible solution and will soon get together.