Alstom is taking an important step in strengthening the regional setup in Europe, three and a half years after the acquisition of Bombardier Transportation.
Germany is an important market for Alstom, and the DACH region has become a leading exporter, serving customers beyond its borders. In particular, all of the train deliveries to the Nordics come from Germany, and 50% of Germany’s production is exported to the Nordics. This includes deliveries for notable projects like the C30 Stockholm Metro in Sweden, Norske Tog’s 05 trains in Norway, and DSB’s IC5 in Denmark. To support this evolution and strengthen customer support, Alstom has decided to combine its Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) region with the Nordics cluster (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland), effective January 2025.
While important orders have been won in recent months, particularly in Germany, the changes have been accompanied by the relocation and partial closure of production sites (see below).
In addition, Alstom appointed Mr. Tim Dawidowsky to lead this new region. He joined Alstom on October 1, 2024 and will be based in Berlin. “Tim comes with extensive turnaround experience and a deep understanding of project based businesses, that will help us bring increased efficiencies. I look forward to welcoming him to Alstom’s leadership team and working with him to make us more competitive in this important region”, says Alstom CEO Henri Poupart-Lafarge.
Dawidowsky adds: “I am thrilled to join Alstom and to work with the DACH & Nordics team, Henri and the leadership team leveraging my experience driving transformation during this strategic juncture in Alstom’s journey, one focused on optimisation and sustainable growth”.
Müslüm Yakisan, DACH Region President until recently, will support during a transition period until the end of October. Poupart-Lafarge continues: “I thank Müslüm for his dedication to Alstom and the DACH region. He led the integration of Bombardier for DACH, a region with the largest amount of legacy projects. His accomplishments include securing some of the largest Alstom contracts, such as the Coradia Max for Baden-Wurttemberg and most recently, Hamburg Metro and S-Bahn Cologne.”
This new organisational structure will be formalised over the next few months in close cooperation with the company’s social partners and will come into effect from January 2025.
Reorganisation of Alstom’s production sites
Even before the takeover of Bombardier Transportation by Alstom, the future of the East German sites was not completely secure. Due different internal and external factors, job cuts and the discontinuation of production were repeatedly discussed. According to current information and media reports, the future of the Alstom sites in Germany, in particular Görlitz, Hennigsdorf and Bautzen, is in part affected by extensive restructuring:
- Görlitz: The plant is to be closed by the end of March 2026, which would affect around 700 jobs. The reason for this is the strategic relocation of shell construction work to Eastern Europe in order to optimise costs. However, talks are underway with a potential industrial partner to create long-term prospects for the site, particularly in the area of industrial jobs. The Görlitz plant is currently producing steel carriage bodies for the tram order for Leipzig, Görlitz and Plauen as a subcontractor for the manufacturer Heiterblick.
- Hennigsdorf: No new train production will take place here. Instead, Hennigsdorf will be developed into a key location for digitalisation and service. This means that repair and maintenance work will be relocated from various locations, including Görlitz, Mannheim and Kassel, to Hennigsdorf. The volume of work is expected to remain stable. It can be assumed that the two major projects DT6 Hamburg and S-Bahn Cologne in particular have secured the future of the site.
- Bautzen: Some of the ongoing projects in Hennigsdorf will be relocated to Bautzen, so that Bautzen will take on an important role in Alstom’s production network.
These measures are part of a specialisation strategy at the German sites in order to focus on key growth areas and ensure competitiveness. At the same time, however, there are also concerns about the impact on the quality of production and the future of the employees affected.
The Salzgitter site is excluded from the restructuring measures.
Restructuring measures and a reduction in the number of employees in the production area were also announced in Mannheim (Baden-Württemberg).
Tim Dawidowsky’s biography
Before joining Alstom, Tim Dawidowsky has been Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy since May 2022. Before that, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of Siemens Gamesa since 2020. Before his move to Siemens Gamesa Tim Dawidowsky was serving as Senior Vice President, Project Excellence at Siemens Energy. He has been responsible for establishing world-class Project Management practices ensuring excellence in project execution. In a career spanning more than 30 years in the Siemens group of companies, across a range of engineering and manufacturing sectors, Dawidowsky has held leading functional positions in service, supply chain management and manufacturing as well as a number of CEO roles in different countries. He joined Siemens AG in 1993 after graduating from the Technical University of Berlin with an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Business. Since then, he has worked across numerous industrial sectors including Oil and Gas, Marine, Steel, Mining, Pulp & Paper, Traffic Systems, Power Generation and Transmission. His career has covered postings in multiple German cities as well as Austria, China and Spain. Between 2012 and 2015 he was CEO of Siemens AG’s Transmission Solution business unit, where he led the unit from a restructuring program back to profitable growth and market leadership. A similar turnaround was effected at the Large Drives business unit, where Dawidowsky acted as CEO between 2015 and 2019, restoring a loss-making business to profitable growth.
09.10.2024
