Corning Cable connects in Łódź

Corning Cable Systems (CCS), a manufacturer of fiber-optic and copper communications systems, started production this month at a new manufacturing plant in Łódź and is hiring workers. The North Carolina-based subsidiary of the U.S. fiber-optic and glass giant Corning is producing telecom cable assemblies and patch chords - the small fibers used to connect components within hardware frames - at the Łódź plant for Western European markets. CCS has regional European headquarters in Munich, Germany. CCS is leasing an existing 3,000 square-meter facility in Łódź. The plant is the firm's first manufacturing site on Polish soil. John O'Hare, Corning's spokesman in London, declined to say how much CCS invested in its Polish operations, but added that it selected the country for the plant's location, the availability of workers and low labor costs.

CCS is hiring employees for the facility's operations, manufacturing, and engineering divisions. About 35 production employees have been hired since February, according to O'Hare. The firm does not yet know the total number of employees it will recruit, he said, but added that hiring levels will be determined by market conditions, referring to the worldwide sluggish demand for telecoms equipment products. The establishment of the Polish plant comes at a time when Corning is implementing a cost-cutting restructuring program that will reduce production and eliminate jobs at its various facilities around the globe due to a drop in product orders from North America and European telecom customers which instituted their own spending cutbacks. A Corning press release dated Oct. 3, 2001, said that CCS would "significantly reduce production at several optical cable manufacturing facilities." "This operating plan will allow the company to match production with demand and significantly reduce inventories," the company said.