Companies across Western and Central Europe are struggling to find sufficient skilled labour. Continental is addressing this problem by stressing the importance of in-company, vocational training and of ensuring that this is financially attractive for young people.
Happy birthday, Continental. The German tyre maker and technology company is 150 years old today, making it one of the oldest companies both in Germany and within the automotive business. One and a half centuries after starting out as a maker of rubber products for horse-drawn vehicles, the firm still specialises in the latest modes of transport and is positioning itself to meet future challenges.
Tyre production at the Continental plant in Aachen, Germany will cease at the end of next year, if not earlier. This is one of the outcomes of talks between the company and representatives of Aachen plant employees. Continental has also published details of upcoming retraining programmes.
As of the 2020 fiscal year, Continental is procuring all of the electricity for its production sites around the world from renewable energy sources. Confirmation of this milestone comes via a reasonable assurance report by auditor KPMG.
Continental is expanding the restructuring programme it initiated in 2019. The company is adding further measures to cut costs and increase efficiency to its Transformation 2019-2029 programme. The tyre manufacturer wants to achieve gross annual savings of more than 1 billion euros by 2023. This is significantly more than previous targets – in fact more than doubling the initially quoted figure. In total it expects the changes to affect more than 30,000 jobs worldwide. Its workers in Conti’s domestic market in Germany will be the largest part, with 13,000 affected jobs. A further major proportion will be in countries with high labour costs. Conti says these jobs will be modified, relocated, or made redundant. Conti says the programme aims to ensure its viability and strengthen global competitiveness in the long term.
Continental AG