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By Alois Vahrner
„Es ist für mich nur schwer vorstellbar, dass alle Familienmitglieder den Plänen zustimmen werden”, sagt LH Günther Platter.
© EXPA/JOHANN GRODER
Wattens – At noon tomorrow Friday at the Swarovski crystal company in Wattens: at the shareholders’ meeting on Friday, the fear of the workforce and family members, the course must be set and the entire Swarovski company will come under the umbrella of a Swiss holding company. It is feared that the entire management will move to Switzerland. The head of the group, Robert Buchbauer, has his company headquarters in Männedorf, on Lake Zurich. It is feared that Swarovski will become a Swiss company.
That would be a massive devaluation of the Wattens site, where Daniel Swarovski laid the foundation stone for a world-renowned group in 1895 with the first industrial glass-cutting machine. More recently, management announced the reduction of 1,800 from the 4,800 previously employees (1,200 this year and more for 2021/22). The group will be completely rebuilt, a massive unprofitable exit from the business is planned, for example, with glass components. Swarovski will become AG and will be marketed (“as an option”).
“We can no longer be silent”
Radical reconstruction plans and the dreaded withdrawal to Switzerland are also causing sparks to fly within the Swarovski crystal family. Several family members are extremely unhappy with the approach, especially towards the employees. The waves are picking up particularly in the “Fritz family,” but several other family members could also vote against possible retirement plans at the shareholders’ meeting. Legally, such far-reaching decisions would require practically unanimity. Some family members even fear an attempt to overturn this regulation through legal niceties.
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Many in the family are dismayed by the approach and the plans, says Paul Swarovski, father of Victoria and Paulina Swarovski, at TT. Shareholders are also threatened with loss of power. In either case, your group will vote against it to avoid “devastating consequences” for the venue. If you just want to focus on the jewelry industry, Wattens – and with it many more of the 3,000 remaining jobs – is in jeopardy. Employees deserved a different approach.
Melanie Grieder-Swarovski, daughter of Gerhard Swarovski and independently active in real estate and art, is also strictly opposed to structural plans. “We can no longer remain silent.” The address that Swarovski had run over should make room for a new one. We need new winds of people who bring performance and a new spirit ”. For Grieder-Swarovski, her cousin Nadja Swarovski will cast her vote (no) at the shareholders’ meeting.
Dish: “Finally put an end to numerous rumors”
The Tyrolean governor, Günther Platter, called on the company to “finally put an end to the numerous rumors.” The company and the family have been intimately linked to Tyrol since its founding. “Tyrol is Swarovski and Swarovski is Tyrol. Therefore, I find it difficult to imagine that family members agree to a withdrawal. ” He relies on the public assurance from the company management that “they want to keep the Wattens site as headquarters.”
CEO Robert Buchbauer.
© Swarovski
The management announced yesterday afternoon, shaken by the massive unrest, by transmission: The location of Wattens “is not affected in spite of the planned restructuring measures”. Nothing will change “in the sense of Wattens, the home and living cradle of Swarovski.” And furthermore: “The vehicle that will bring the group together in the future will also continue to be based in Tyrol. We want to clearly reject the rumors about a possible migration to Switzerland or even the closure of the location ”. It’s not about relocations, but about “a painful but necessary downsizing and capacity adjustment.”
“Wattens is playing a major role in the restart of Swarovski. Moving forward, it will be the global center of decision-making and competence for production and production-related areas, and will continue to be our beacon where the brand can be experienced as nowhere else in the world, “emphasizes CEO Robert Buchbauer.
Massive job cuts are causing waves
The glass company announced in July that it would cut another 1,000 of the 4,600 jobs that still exist at Wattens in the fall. In the medium term, some 3,000 people would work at the headquarters. Because by 2022, the number of employees is expected to decrease by another 600 positions.
The massive reduction was expected in recent weeks and months. In late June, Swarovski announced that it would cut about 200 sales and marketing jobs. The affected employees are said to have been informed of their dismissal by email. This procedure, as well as the dismissals themselves, generated massive criticism from the Tyrolean opposition parties, as well as the union and the Chamber of Labor.
Recently, a member of the Swarovski family also criticized management’s approach to CEO Robert Buchbauer. The family was “shocked by the rumors of plans for our headquarters,” said Paul Swarovski, father of Victoria and Paulina Swarovski. He also spoke of a “possible relocation of the Wattens site”, which was denied by top management.
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