On May 13, 2005, 15 years ago, BMW started operations in its new plant in Leipzig. A small reason for the carmaker to celebrate, because the belts in the Leipzig plant are still idling, slowed down by the corona crisis. Also on Wednesday, no car will leave the factory in the north of the city. After two months of standstill, it should start again on Monday.
Exactly two months after the last production day on March 18, the employees will all be back in the factory. According to plant manager Hans-Peter Kremser, the program will start with a so-called reduced production program. When production is back in full swing depends on how the market is behaving and what the customers are doing, explained Kremser MDR SACHSEN. But you are well prepared.
Usually up to 1,000 vehicles are built in Leipzig every day. But the Corona crisis is causing problems for the Bavarian car maker. BMW, like Volkswagen and Daimler, is slipping into the red. “The second quarter will be negative,” said BMW CFO Nicolas Peter on Wednesday in Munich. How high the loss will be, “we’ll see”. In April, for example, sales dropped by 44 percent. CEO Oliver Zipse said that the way out of the corona crisis would take longer than expected. The situation is extremely volatile. The BMW executive board assumes that the economic environment will only start to stabilize between July and September. It is clear that sales and annual profit before taxes will be significantly below the level of the previous year.
Leipzig has the most innovative work
Although the current situation is no reason to celebrate, BMW can look back on 15 successful years in Leipzig. Started with 2,500 employees, the plant was expanded several times and now has 5,500 employees. Production capacity was also doubled in the 15 years, from 175,000 to 350,000 units.
The plant is particularly successful through the production of electric cars, said Kremser. Especially with the production of the i3 and i8 models. It was a pioneer in electromobility at BMW. And the Leipzig plant is also the most sustainable in terms of the exterior. It has four wind turbines that supply the plant with electricity. Various innovative developments such as water or energy storage would also give the BMW plant in Leipzig a special position.
Criticism of temporary agency work
Over the years there has been criticism, especially from the trade union, of the high number of agency workers. At weddings, over 40 percent of the workforce were contract or temporary workers. However, around 60 percent of the staff has now been recruited from this pool of agency workers. There is also positive development in the union. Not just as far as the BMW workforce is concerned. Around 4,000 employees of suppliers or logistics companies have meanwhile signed well-endowed collective agreements negotiated by IG Metall. From a trade union perspective, BMW in Leipzig is definitely a success story.
But that could also change due to the Corona crisis. To ensure solvency, BMW reduced investments by a third to less than four billion euros. Jobs may also be cut. BMW currently has 90,000 employees in Germany, 30,000 of whom are currently on short-time work.