The management of the company’s shareholder “Homann Holzwerkstoffe” made the decision due to worse-than-expected results of the group’s companies in the first half of the year, the company announced on Friday.
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“In response to the worse-than-expected first half-year performance results, we decided to temporarily suspend the production of wood fiberboard at the ‘Homanit Lietuva’ company. This will allow us to adjust the group’s production capacities until the market sustainably recovers. Due to these actions, the company expects to reduce operating losses in the second half of the year by 5–6 million euros compared to the first half,” said Fritz Homann, CEO and owner of “Homann Holzwerkstoffe,” in a statement.
According to him, production will be temporarily halted from the beginning of next year – from 12 to 21 months. As a result, over 200 employment contracts will be terminated.
During the transitional period while production is suspended, about 20 employees will work at the company. Currently, the company employs 255 people, according to “Sodra” data.
The poorer results were caused by a global decline in demand in the furniture industry and sharply increased energy, wood, chemical, and transport costs – in some places by more than 50% – due to the Middle East conflict, which negatively affected the first half-year results, the statement said.
As BNS reported, Dalia Vencevičienė, advisor to the Minister of Economy and Innovation, said the minister was informed about the employee layoffs and production suspension on Friday morning. He had met with F. Homann.
According to D. Vencevičienė, the minister was in constant communication with the company and inquired whether it needed state aid. According to the advisor, E. Grikšas was told that state aid would not solve the challenges posed by the market.
D. Vencevičienė emphasized that the company is “not completely saying goodbye” to Lithuania, and decisions about further operations will be made later.
F. Homann said last May that the factory in Pagiriai should start generating profit in 2027.
The factory near Vilnius, worth more than 215 million euros, was the largest investment in the history of the German company. It was previously announced that it aims to reach an annual production volume of up to 310,000 cubic meters.
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The Pagiriai community has previously repeatedly criticized the activities of “Homanit Lietuva” in the water supply area; residents have repeatedly picketed and demanded the factory be relocated from this area.
Environment Minister Ieva Andriulaitytė promised last week that inspections at the factory would be conducted more frequently.
As BNS wrote, residents protesting in February said that pollution from the factory encourages selling property and moving elsewhere.
Then Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė said that institutions responsible for environmental protection must more actively supervise the factory’s activities.
The Lithuanian Supreme Administrative Court (LVAT) on March 4 stated that the factory’s environmental impact was properly assessed, and its construction and operation comply with environmental protection requirements.
After receiving residents’ complaints about wood fiber possibly released into the environment from the “Homanit Lietuva” factory, environmentalists started an investigation in March. The company then stated that no production incident occurred and fiber did not spread from the technological process.
At the beginning of June, the Environmental Protection Department (AAD) started another investigation regarding wood panels produced by “Homanit Lietuva” and sold to another company, stored in a quarry near Pagiriai, Melekonys.
BNS wrote that last November, after the production wastewater collection line was clogged and the amount of collected water in wells increased, part of the wastewater entered the environment. In December, environmentalists determined that the company polluted the environment. Additionally, an incident was recorded last June when excess fiber entered the environment.
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