Production at Elcoteq's Espoo plant to be moved to Estonia

Personnel negotiations at Elcoteq's manufacturing plant in Espoo, Finland, have been concluded. The subject of the negotiations was the transfer of the plant's production operations from their current premises and the impact of this decision on personnel. With the negotiations now completed Elcoteq has decided to move production at the Espoo plant to the company's plant in Tallinn, Estonia. The transfer will be undertaken in stages from March until the end of the third quarter in 2004. As a result of the transfer the employment contracts of roughly 170 employees at the Espoo plant will be terminated. All the redundancies are expected to take effect by the end of 2004. Elcoteq gained Tellabs International as a customer at the end of last year against tough international competition. The Tellabs plant in Espoo, Finland was transferred to Elcoteq at the end of the year as part of the co-operation agreement. Elcoteq and Tellabs have agreed that Elcoteq will move out of the Tellabs building to other premises during autumn 2004. The Espoo plant manufactures digital optical cross-connection products and broadband access systems for Tellabs International. Moving production to Tallinn is expected to generate clear cost savings for both Elcoteq and Tellabs.Source: PCBnewsline