Corticeira Amorim closes Silves factory
Cork giant Corticeira Amorim announced on Wednesday that it would close its factory Amorim Cork Solutions in Silves.
The 31 employees have been informed and given the opportunity to move 200km to another factory in Vendas Novas where it will concentrate the production of cork insulation products but as yet does not know how many will accept the offer.
“The centralisation of the operation in Vendas Novas will benefit from the greater proximity of production to the raw materials used and the concentration of the investments necessary to obtain greater productivity and competitiveness in the relaunch of the expanded cork business,” says a source from Corticeira Amorim to ECO/Local Online, confirming that the decision to close the expanded cork production unit was only communicated on Wednesday.
As part of the internal reorganisation of Amorim Cork Solutions and the transfer of the expanded cork production unit from Silves to Vendas Novas, the possibility of transferring the 31 employees currently in Silves to Vendas Novas will be suggested. Recognising, however, that this solution may not be feasible for everyone, the company is available to negotiate fair compensation conditions with workers who choose not to follow this move”, states the company.
And in a statement to the securities regulator CMVM, the company states: “After looking at the existing production capacities of several Amorim Cork Solutions industrial units, it was decided to move, as of June 9, the Silves industrial unit to the Vendas Novas unit (which also produces insulation products).”
However, according to the Algarve Resident newspaper, the decision follows “years of tensions with local residents” over persistent smoke emissions from the Silves facility.
But despite these protests, Amorim guarantees that “the decision was based solely on operational efficiency, considering only market-related factors, installed capacity versus market size, and the location of the cork oak forests.”
Yet Silves Municipal Council and the Commission for Regional Coordination and Development say they were caught completely by surprise at meeting with Amorim Cork Solutions on Thursday.
“We were taken by surprise yesterday by this decision, which was unexpected,” said Silves Council councillor Maxime Sousa Bispo whose reaction dovetailed with that of the leader of the CCDR-Algarve, José Apolinário, both of whom expressed “sadness”, to describe the mood in the region and municipality where the factory, originally founded by the Mozelos Group, was acquired in late 1960s by Amorim when Corticeira Amorim Algarve Lda was founded.
Maxime Sousa Bispo has represented the local authority in discussions that had been ongoing for years with the company to try and get it to reduce its environmental footprint.
“We’re sad but beyond the sadness is the devastation because Silves has had a tradition of cork with a lot of factories related to the cork industry”, she added.
