VW plant to resume production as supplier dispute ends

Emden, Germany — Regular series production at Volkswagen’s Emden site will begin again on 29 Aug following a stoppage due to seat trim supply issues.

Production ceased at VW’s Emden plant twice – 8-9 Aug and 18-22 Aug – due to a supplier CarTrim’s failure to deliver close covers for seating to VW’s in-house seating producer, Sitech Sitztechnik.

The outage was reportedly linked to a dispute between VW and the Croatian supplier.

However, head of communications for Sitech Sitztechnik, Christine Sing, said that negotiations have been held between the two companies and “regular series production will start on 29 Aug.”

“There are some cars that are without seating at the site but we are now producing these seats.” She added: “Parts of Sitech are currently working to put seating in cars that have not got seating.”

A statement from Katrin Raczek, Volkswagen corporate communications, also said an agreement had been reached in the negotiations.

“The suppliers will resume supplies to Volkswagen in the near future and the plants which were affected are therefore preparing step-by-step for the resumption of production,” it said.

Sitech’s Emden plant employs 450 employees to produce complete seat sets for the Volkswagen Passat and CC.