Crown Hellas Can: Production line closes, employees take voluntary redundancy

Crown Hellas Can will close the production line for end caps in Corinth at the end of June. This decision will affect 39 employees. In a communication that Business Daily had with representatives of the company, they said that the decision to close the line was taken as the product is old technology and the customer base had shrunk significantly. The product it has replaced is produced in a foreign factory that has advanced engineering equipment.

The company has reportedly entered into a voluntary redundancy programme which has been accepted by 32 employees, a number close to the targets set by the management. The voluntary redundancy package includes a compensation package twice as high as that provided for by Greek law, unemployment benefit for one year, family allowance for those with children and medical and accident coverage also for a period of one year.

At the same time, according to Crown Hellas Can management circles, the company provided employees who accepted voluntary redundancy with seminars with specialised consultants to help them reintegrate into the labour market. Some of the workers who have already completed their working life in the packaging industry have reportedly already entered into agreements with other industries in the region. Asked by Business Daily about the future of the workers who have not accepted the offer, representatives said that a decision will be made at the end of June, when the voluntary exit period ends.

It is worth noting that the shutdown of the line in Corinth comes within a relatively short period of the sale of the Thessaloniki plant (food sector - tinplate packaging) in 2021 to Tinplate NewCo as part of Crown's global exit from this sector. 

After the completion of the shutdown of the end line, Crown Hellas Can will continue to have an industrial presence in Greece with its metal container production division in the Isthmus area in Corinth, as well as with another plant in Patras. Upon completion of the voluntary redundancy, the number of employees in the company will be approximately 330 (production and administration).

Crown Hellas Can, which has a production presence of around 50 years in our country, reported sales of EUR 177 million in 2021, up 12.3% year-on-year, according to its latest published balance sheet. In terms of pre-tax results, profitability was in the range of EUR 5.23 million from a loss of EUR 1.24 million, while net profit in 2021 was EUR 3.42 million from EUR 607 thousand in the previous fiscal year.