The Hungarian interior design company Zalakerámia has started the dismantling of its factory in Romhány, which provided most of the production in Hungary, and the technology will be transferred to its factory in Cluj. The company, owned by the Austrians from Lasselsberger, thus stopped production in Hungary, reports hvg.hu.
The company announced in May 2023 that there would be a collective layoff at its factory in Tófej, Zala county, with almost 90% of the more than 200 people being made redundant. Zalakerámia said at the time that it had faced serious challenges in recent years, such as exploding energy and labor costs or the significant drop in turnover, which had resulted in large product inventories.
Zalakerámia’s operations were also hampered by the additional tax imposed on producers of clay and fired ceramics in February 2023, which also made it impossible to make the necessary investments.
Production at the Tófej factory was then transferred to the Romhány factory. According to the Hungarian newspaper, although production at Tófej resumed this year, the factory was shut down again in August and will definitely not be in production until FebruaryThe technology will be transferred to the company’s factory in Cluj, which will practically lead to the complete closure of production in Hungary.
The factory in Romhány represented a higher technological standard, hvg.hu also reports. The Austrians made a major investment a few years ago to modernize production. In the future, the site will serve as a logistics base.