Change negotiations | Whiskey distillery Kyrö lays off four employees and furloughs its entire staff for a month

A native of Isokyr whiskey distillery Kyrö Distillery says that at the end of its change negotiations, it will fire four people and lay off the company’s entire staff for one month.

Kyrö said on Tuesday that he had finished the change negotiations that started at the end of August. The goal of the change negotiations was to reduce the company’s expenses by two million euros per year.

The company’s personnel will be laid off during the first quarter of 2024.

CEO of Kyrö Jouni Ritola told in August In an interview with HS, that Rye Rye oy, which is responsible for distilling whiskey, has a total of 28 employees in Isossakyrö and Helsinki. In addition, according to Ritola, Kyröön Kievari oy, which runs the visitor center in Isossakyrö, has about 15 employees with different employment contracts.

Resignations and in addition to the layoffs, Kyrö says in his press release that he is reorganizing the company’s operations by increasing ownership and financial responsibility for the teams.

In addition, investments in marketing will be re-examined and administrative costs will be reviewed.

Kyrö also says that he is adjusting his whiskey production. The company says in the press release that whiskey will still remain at the center of Kyrö’s strategy in the future.

The measures will achieve a total of approximately 1.7 million euros in annual savings.

“Through the change negotiations, we are primarily aiming for profitable growth at a time when high inflation and interest rates are tightening the purse strings of both consumers and financiers,” says Kyrö’s CEO Jouni Ritola in the bulletin.

At Kyrö Distillery has offices in Germany and Great Britain as well, but the change negotiations only concerned companies operating in Finland. According to Kyrö’s press release, the company’s operations in international markets will continue, but the allocation and size of investments will be reviewed.

The company’s savings needs have been driven, among other things, by the weakening of consumers’ purchasing power due to the uncertainty of the economy, and thus a weaker-than-anticipated sales growth.