The looming departure of an iconic appliance maker from Greece caused more political “ripples” in the country this week, on top of an already tumultuous month that witnessed guilty verdicts in the explosive Golden Dawn trial and continued provocations by Erdogan-led Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean.
The Pitsos brand, associated with Greece’s post-war manufacturing recovery and with households’ modernization, was acquired by German multinational Bosch in 1977, two years after a debilitating strike and subsequent “lockdown” by its then owners led to insolvency.
The development sparked yet another round of accusations and counter-accusations between the center-right New Democracy government and the main opposition leftist SYRIZA party, with each accusing the other over the expected loss of the assembly plant.
The large manufacturing unit, located for decades in the working-class Piraeus-area district of Rendi, was part of a compromise between the Greek state and Siemens some eight years ago, with the latter promising to invest 60 million euros and create roughly 700 jobs in Greece. Although BSH, as the company was renamed, wasn’t specifically mentioned in the agreement, it was more-or-less understood that the investment involved the relocation of the manufacturing plant from metropolitan Athens further west, to the industrial district of Elefsina.
The Siemens deal emanated from the German multinational’s admitted kickbacks to officials in Greece to secure state contracts.
BSH had purchased a very large tract of land in the district, and specifically at the Magoula site, but had not yet finalized the building licenses necessary for constructing and operating its new unit.
Nevertheless, the promised investment not only fell through the cracks amid the punishing Greek economic crisis, the entire Pitsos relocation plan was scrapped when virulent opposition erupted from the new mayor of Elefsina and his majority of councilors on the municipal council, a formation backed by SYRIZA, which was again the main opposition party at the time
In addressing a municipal council meeting that subsequently passed a resolution against BSH’s plans to build a new assembly plant in their district, then mayor Giorgos Tsoukalas said “…we must prevent the social and environmental crime that they’re (Samaras government) planning to implement through a fast-track procedure. With the coordinated actions of the people and local government we can cancel it (the new unit).”
A subsequent change in zoning for Elefsina was essentially custom-made to prevent construction of the new plant, with Siemens’ share of BSH subsequently being bought out by Bosch, which took control of 100 percent of the Greek subsidiary.
The first announcement that Bosch-Pitsos was ending operations in Greece came in 2017, a period when SYRIZA was now in the government. The date for closing the plant at the time was given at the end of 2018, with a subsequent company announcement postponing a final decision for early 2021 – an ominous decision, however, that came this week.
Back in 2017, press reports had claimed that company sources said it would transfer its Greece-based manufacturing operations to either Poland or Turkey.
