Steklarna Rogaška, the Finnish-owned Slovenian glassworks known for high-quality crystalware, is planning to lay off up to 140 out of its 830 workers.

The Rogaška Slatina-based company announced the redundancies on 15 September, saying they were part of a streamlining plan of the entire Fiskars group, which it has been part since 2015.

The Finnish group intends to cut its global workforce by around 400 as part of a plan to streamline its organisational structure, Steklarna Rogaška said. According to its website, the group employs 8,600 people.

"As the process progresses, we will work closely with our employees and employee representatives to ensure that they are fully informed and can consult on proposals," the company said in a statement for the Slovenian Press Agency. "The procedures and timelines vary, depending on countries and functions."

The newspaper Dnevnik reported that Rogaška workers were made aware of the plan two days earlier but were not too concerned as they would be able to find new jobs. The paper said a bigger cause for concern was a decrease in orders.

The report said the company would employ soft methods. Because it offers rather generous severance packages, there is substantial interest among the employees to leave the glassworks voluntarily.

After a series of successful years, Steklarna Rogaška posted a net loss of €5.63 million in 2022.

The company said in its business report for last year that it had been affected by the rising costs of materials, energy and transport because of the war in Ukraine. The instability and weaker demand were also to have a negative impact on business this year.

The glassworks recently had a change of leadership as former director of the Maribor branch of Henkel, Rolf Sebastian Müller-Grünow, took over the management of the company a month ago, Dnevnik said.

Relying on a 350-year-old glassmaking tradition, Steklarna Rogaška was founded in 1927. It was sold to the WWRD group in 2014 and taken over by Fiskars in 2015.