Nestlé to close factory in Germany, sell another

Nestlé plans to close one factory and sell another in Germany. Keystone-SDA

Nestlé plans to close its factory in Germany at Neuss, near Düsseldorf, by mid-2026. The Swiss food giant also plans to sell its Conow plant, near the Polish border, early next year.

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The 145 employees at the Neuss site, which produces Thomy oil as well as mayonnaise and mustard in glass jars and tubes, were informed on Thursday, according to a press release from Nestlé’s German subsidiary.

The company justifies its decision by “increased consumer sensitivity to prices and rising costs, which in recent years have led to a fall in volumes and overcapacity” at the North Rhine-Westphalia site.

Part of the production, in particular mustard and mayonnaise tubes, will be transferred to the Lüdinghausen site, south of Münster and more than a hundred kilometres from Neuss. Nestlé plans to invest €13 million (CHF12.4 million) to modernise the site, including the creation of a new production line. Thirty additional jobs will be offered to workers in Neuss.

Nestlé’s aim is to “increase the competitiveness of food factories in Germany and take advantage of synergies at European level”. Other production, in particular products sold in glass, will be relocated elsewhere in Europe.

The Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten (NGG) union of food and catering workers criticised Nestlé’s announcements on its website, “even though its sales have increased in Germany”.

“The aim of the closure is to further increase profitability, and therefore to make profits at the expense of employees,” according to the union boss Guido Zeitler. He asked management to refrain from implementing “this radical measure”.

In a separate document, the multinational says it plans to sell the Conow plant in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at the beginning of 2026, which employs 80 people. A German company is said to be interested in the site. Production of the tuna alternative Garden Gourmet Vuna, Maggi liquid broths and Maggi Texicana Salsa is to be transferred to other European sites.

Nestlé currently has 17 sites in Germany, employing more than 6,000 people.

Translated from French with DeepL/sb

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