A factory from another time: Inside Ems Chemie

This applies primarily to Martullo-Blocher. But politics is probably his second priority right now: Ems chemistry is in dire straits. This week the group was forced to announce that sales in the first nine months of 2023 had fallen by 9.3 percent compared to the previous year, to 1.7 billion francs; This is a drama for the company accustomed to success.

Two days after the election victory, Martullo-Blocher flew to America, and in November he will make a business trip to Asia: The boss is personally handling more orders.
Almost no stone is left unturned at the headquarters in Domat/Ems GR. Production was greatly reduced due to reduced sales and reduced inventories. Department heads are encouraged to reduce their costs to 2019 levels.

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“Something like this hurts me”

Because high profits need to be achieved in 2023 as well. This is the only way monstrous profit distributions to owners are possible. For the 2022 financial year, shareholders received dividends of 468 million francs. There were 332 million for the main shareholders Martullo-Blocher, Miriam Baumann-Blocher (48) and Rahel Blocher (47). For comparison: Personnel expenses in 2022 amounted to approximately 246 million francs for all 2,693 Ems employees.

The number of employees is expected to decrease by the end of the year. “The necessary cost reductions are unlikely to be achieved without cutting jobs in any department,” an insider told SonntagsBlick. Temporary ones were therefore resolved after contracts expired and fixed-term contracts were not extended. In addition, many production employees were forcibly transferred, especially from the troubled Griltech division, to the Grivory department, where things were going better.

A company spokesperson comments: “The dismissal of permanent employees has been avoided by non-renewing temporary and fixed-term contracts, as well as by transferring individual employees from ‘Griltech’ facilities to ‘Grivory’ facilities.” The labor commission held meetings with employees affected by the postponements.

Terminations

Employees contacted by SonntagsBlick provide only limited support for these statements. A manager who wished to remain anonymous said: “There have definitely been over 30 permanent employees laid off in the last few months.”

This is a very serious accusation: if more than 30 employees are affected by the layoffs, large companies are obliged under labor law to notify the canton. The company’s senior management therefore rejects this: “We cannot understand at all the claim to reduce the number of layoffs that need to be declared by 30, and we categorically reject it,” says the spokesman.

So this is a counter-statement in which the statement of senior management outweighs: No one other than members of management has an overall assessment of all dismissals.

Infrastructure has also been inadequate for years. A new high-bay warehouse was recently built in record time and is scheduled to be operational in December. However, due to a lack of orders, it is likely to be underfilled, at least for now. For this reason, it needs to be partially rented.

Additionally, Ems-Chemie is reluctant to approve infrastructure investments. Some production facilities are 50 years old. Pump stations or transformer stations that convert electrical energy into medium- or low-voltage electricity date back in part to the 1950s; As soon as outages occur, staff are expected to work nights and weekends.

The poor state of Domat/Ems’ infrastructure is obvious and documented in writing. An internal audit report made available to SonntagsBlick in December 2022 identified a number of security-related deficiencies:

“Faulty phone and socket.” “Heat shields on line A are missing.” “There are a few holes in the ground near the E line.” “Exhaust line G line is clogged.” “Inadequately secured hole in construction site Line I.” «For example using improvised power lines. Cable reels connected to the T.B line.» “3 emergency exit signs are broken/unreadable.”

The conclusion of the report: “There is a lot of dirt, dust and unnecessary material. As a result, security also suffers.” The attached images look like a bad joke and do not meet the quality standards of the Swiss industry. How are these conditions possible in an internationally renowned company?

Defects fixed

Those responsible state that approximately 1000 employees work at the Domat/Ems location and sales of more than one billion francs are achieved in an area the size of 24 football fields: “So this place is huge. “As we take order, cleanliness and occupational safety very seriously, we regularly check these with our supervisors in other areas of responsibility,” a spokesperson said. “Every little thing” is meticulously recorded to avoid problems in the future. The company emphasized that “the deficiencies identified in the report have now been completed.” In addition, Ems is investing 20 to 30 million francs per year in infrastructure and maintenance up to and including 2023.

This doesn’t seem to satisfy everyone. Outside companies that have rented the Ems-Chemie facility for years have fled in recent months. They moved 150 employees to the new Vial industrial park just across the street.

Accident statistics also remain inconclusive: 34 minor accidents and 29 industrial accidents were counted in Domat/Ems in 2022. The situation is particularly unstable in production at the corporate unit “Grivory”, where there have been 7.6 industrial accidents per 100 employees in the last twelve months.

This is significantly more than required by the company’s own target, called the “Frequency Index”. Suva’s comparative figures for the “manufacture of basic and fine chemicals” industry, to which Ems belongs, also look better: On average, about 2.4 occupational accidents are recorded per 100 full-time workers per year.

When asked about this, management downplays its own statistics: “This is an ambitious reduction target. “Often these are situations that cause no disruption or a very short one, on average of a few hours,” said the spokesperson. In addition, those responsible say that Ems takes occupational safety very seriously and therefore does every little thing – every adhesive plaster, to prevent such incidents from happening in the future. He emphasizes once again that he meticulously records every little cut, every scrape, every trip.

Finally, the company announced that it was taking SonntagsBlick’s “hints” as input to better inform Domat/Ems employees in general. This is especially important in an unfavorable economic situation, as “a certain amount of uncertainty” can naturally arise more quickly.