Daewoo Electronics to close three of four factories

Daewoo Electronics' plant in Pruszkow is to be the only one of four in Poland owned by the Korean company to continue operations. The Lodz-based Fonica plant is currently in the process of liquidation at a cost of almost 100 jobs. Last Friday representatives of Fonica, a producer of television parts, held negotiations with Daewoo Manufacturing Electronics Poland, concerning the possibility of continuing production. "We hope to partly continue production at Fonica," said Zbigniew Blonski, deputy head of the plant's "Solidarnosc" trade union. However, according to Andrzej Szulborski, head of Pruszkow-based Daewoo Electronics, the question is not whether but when group lay-offs will take place at the Lodz plant. "This will probably occur during the next two months," he said. In 2001 the revenues of the Pruszkow plant amounted to over zl. 800 million - an increase from the previous year of around zl. 130 million. The company also managed to cut its net losses to zl. 5.5 million, from zl. 43 million in 2000. Daewoo Electronics produces 1.8 million television sets annually and employs 1,200 people. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B4) A.K.