Lego to close Swiss factory with loss of 390 jobs
Europe's largest toy-maker, Lego, is to close its production site at Baar in canton Zug with the loss of 390 jobs. The Danish company announced on Thursday that it plans to shut the site by the middle of next year.
The move is part of a global reorganisation forced on the group by mounting losses.
Analysts say the company had losses of around SFr200 million ($120 million) last year as Lego’s world-famous building blocks lost further ground to more fashionable computer games.
The factory in Baar currently employs around 445 people. Around 30 will take early retirement, while another 20 will be placed in Lego’s factory at Willisau in canton Lucerne. The rest of the workforce will be made redundant.
Another 580 jobs are to go at other Lego sites in Denmark, the United States, Germany and Hungary.
Announcing the job cuts, the company’s CEO Poul Ploughman said last year had been “absolutely disastrous” for the company.
But he said the restructuring programme should lead to a turnaround.
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