Landliebe has to stay!

On 21 February 2024, the Theo Müller Group announced that the plants in Heilbronn and Schefflenz were to be closed. Prior to this announcement, there was no dialogue with the works council, the workforce or the NGG trade union about possible alternative concepts.
The Müller Group only took over the Friesland Campina production plants in April 2023. After the Cologne plant was closed last year, the Müller management led the workforce in Heilbronn and Schefflenz to believe that it wanted to work with them to make the Landliebe brand a success.
The sudden announcement at short notice to close the main plant in Heilbronn and the plant in Schefflenz is a slap in the face for the employees.
We increasingly suspect that the Müller Group has obviously only bought the Landliebe brand in order to get rid of the competition and strengthen its market position.
But People should be more important than Profit. Instead of abandoning the traditional plants in Heilbronn and Schefflenz, we are calling on Müller to invest in production technologies and infrastructure in order to utilise and expand the potential of the sites in Heilbronn and Schefflenz.
The rescue of the Unilever site in Heilbronn is an example of successful resistance to the closure plans of a major corporation. Together with the works council of KNORR Heilbronn, the NGG trade union was able to convince the parent company Unilever not to close the plant with an alternative concept and new collective labour agreements. Instead, it was agreed to invest in facilities and processes, create prospects for employees and commit to expanding the factory as a European base load factory. This was linked to job security until at least 2030.
This shows that if a company has the will, decisions can be reversed and changed in favour of future prospects.