Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia said that it would lay-off about 285 employees at its plant in Salo, as part of its plan to revamp the site and focus fully on the high-value smartphone market in Europe.
In November 2009, Nokia has axed around 550 jobs in Japan, Finland and Denmark, in an effort to align its research and development (R&D) operations in line with its focused portfolio of future products.
The company said that it will support as many employees as possible with alternate plans and would engage in voluntary severance packages. It is also planning to stop its ongoing rotational temporary lay-offs at the plant by the end of June 2010.
Nokia is planning to develop an operational mode at its Salo plant and would introduce new specialised manufacturing methods. The company has ten mobile device manufacturing sites in Brazil, China, Finland, Hungary, India, Mexico, Romania, South Korea and the UK. The Salo facility currently employs approximately 2,200 people.
Juha Putkiranta, senior vice president of markets at Nokia, said: Salo is a crucial part of Nokia’s global manufacturing network. Plans involving changes to employees are always painful, and they are set in motion only after thorough consideration. However, with these plans our aim is to ensure the plant’s future competitiveness and its special role as one best suited to the production of high value mobile devices.
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