Bosch Solar announces plans for Arnstadt manufacturing site
Bosch plans to sell its Arnstadt manufacturing operations for cells and modules to SolarWorld AG. The buyer intends to employ roughly 800 associates. An agreement to this effect has been signed. A second unnamed investor plans to lease shopfloor space in order to manufacture pharmaceutical products under clean-room conditions. This would create roughly 100 jobs. A declaration of intent has been signed.
Bosch intends to relocate the manufacture of an automotive electronic product from the Bosch location in Hatvan, Hungary, to Arnstadt, as well as to set up a service organization and a trading company for handling existing obligations. Over the medium term, this may preserve roughly 250 further jobs. The realization of the entire concept is subject, among other things, to approval by the antitrust authorities. The parties have agreed not to disclose any of the conditions of the agreement.
In the weeks ahead, Bosch and the investors still have to conclude extensive preliminary work. This includes the necessary negotiations with the employee representatives.
SolarWorld has drawn up a business plan for the Arnstadt plant that envisions a central, lasting role for the Arnstadt location as part of the SolarWorld group. Bosch will now quickly start negotiations with employee representatives to discuss the practical implementation of the plan. Earlier this year, it was possible to give the location's 91 apprentices a guarantee that they could complete their training in other vocational programs, both within and outside Bosch.
"This makes it likely that we can offer jobs to roughly 1,100 of our presently 1,500 associates in Arnstadt. The negotiation process was a lengthy one. But if the deals are put into practice as planned, it will allow us to give a great majority of associates a perspective. We have invested a lot of time and considerable sums of money in making this possible," says Dr. Volkmar Denner, chairman of the board of management of Robert Bosch GmbH.
"Instead of closure, our aim was to find purchasers with a viable industrial concept and a good reputation, and that take a long-term view that offers prospects for the future," Denner says, explaining Bosch's approach. "With today's signing, we have reached an important milestone," he adds. "However, various conditions still have to be satisfied before this solution can be put into practice. They include final signing with the investor from the pharmaceuticals industry and successful talks with employee representatives."
In March 2013, Bosch announced it was ending its activities in crystalline photovoltaics.
"In order to preserve as many jobs as possible, we cast our net wide in our search for an investor. We mainly looked for buyers involved solely in photovoltaics. In addition, we approached many companies from outside the industry. Within Bosch as well, we made great efforts to find products that could be manufactured in Arnstadt," says Dr. Stefan Hartung, member of the supervisory board of Bosch Solar Energy AG and the member of the Bosch board of management responsible for the
In its search for a solution, Bosch received constructive support from the Thuringian state government and the Thuringian development corporation.
Attempts are being made to find comparable solutions for the module factory in Vénissieux, France. Bosch is holding talks with investors from the photovoltaics industry as well as other industries. Here too, Bosch is examining the possibility of manufacturing a product from a different division at the location in the future.
As announced at the beginning of October 2013, the search continues for a buyer for the stake Bosch holds in its subsidiary aleo solar AG, based in Oldenburg and Prenzlau, Germany. It is also working with the directors of aleo to examine all the options available. These include the complete or partial sale of the operative business of the aleo solar group. Whether and when a transaction will come to a successful conclusion remains to be seen.
