Some 300 workers of the total headcount of 450 were affected by the shutdown of the plant in Bucharest.

“We didn’t start from the premise of shutting down the facility, but the sharp slowdown of the market forced us to make this decision”, said Eduard Macarescu, commercial director of Lasselsberger Romania.

A part of the Bucharest plant production will be shifted to Cluj, where Lasselsberger holds another facility with an annual production output of 7.5-8 million sqm of ceramic tiles.

Lasselsberger recorded a turnover of around 45 million euros last year in Romania, down 26.2% from 2007.