Out after 135 years Traditional Thun factory has to close - 50 redundancies
Packaging manufacturer Hoffmann Neopac is selling its can business to the French family company Massilly Group. The site in Thun is being closed.
12.02.2025, 15:54
SDA
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- Hoffmann Neopac is selling its can business to the French Massilly Group and will cease metal packaging production in Thun by mid-2025.
- Around 50 of the current 75 employees will lose their jobs by the end of 2024.
- The sale is taking place because Hoffmann Neopac wants to focus on tubes, having already relocated production lines to the Netherlands.
Packaging manufacturer Hoffmann Neopac is selling its can business to the French family business Massilly Group. The production of metal packaging at the Thun site will be gradually discontinued by mid-2025. This marks the end of a 135-year era.
The company currently employs 75 people in Thun, as Cornelia Schmid, media officer at Hoffmann Neopac, told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Wednesday afternoon.
The company is expecting around 50 redundancies by the end of the year. It is currently still being clarified how many employees can be kept on at the site in Oberdiessbach, just a few kilometers away. Hoffmann Neopac mainly produces tubes there. The four apprentices will transfer from Thun to Oberdiessbach.
According to Schmid, there is a social plan for the employees affected. A job center has also been set up. The production halls in Gwatt near Thun will remain with Hoffmann Neopac. They will be used as storage space and partly rented out.
New owners focus on the Netherlands
The end of the Thun can factory was on the horizon. A takeover bid was submitted for the metal division of Hoffmann Neopac. The new owner wanted to concentrate the metal business in the Netherlands, it was announced at the end of January. The Thun site would have to go.
On Wednesday, Hoffmann Neopac announced that it was selling its can business to the French family-owned company Massilly. The purchase price was not disclosed. The production of metal packaging at the Thun site will be gradually discontinued by mid-2025.
Hoffmann Neopac had already relocated three production lines from Thun to the Dutch plant in Dronten in October 2024 and cut a third of the workforce. The company cited the loss of important customers in Switzerland and the strong Swiss franc as reasons for this.
With the sale of the can business, Hoffmann Neopac intends to concentrate on the tube business, as the company announced on Wednesday. The private company operates production sites in Switzerland, Hungary, the USA and India. Hoffmann Neopac employs around 1100 people worldwide.
Traditional Thun company
The "Schachtlere" is a long-established Thun-based company that was founded in 1890. In the beginning, the focus was on the production of cartridge boxes for the army. When the army wanted to produce the boxes itself a few years later, Hoffmann had to switch production from armaments to civilian goods. Among other things, the company manufactured tin cans for the processed cheese of the Thun-based company Gerber.
For a long time, the metal packaging factory was located in the middle of the town, in a striking, rounded building by the shipping canal at the railroad station. The rattling and clattering of the machines was part of the soundscape of the town until 1986. Then Hoffmann Neopac moved to a location outside the city center, in Gwatt.
