The German industrial plant manufacturer Festo plans to cut about 1,300 jobs in the country.
Market changes, increasing competition from Asia and geopolitical crises have posed significant challenges for Festo, the family-owned company announced on Friday.
Faced by the tougher market conditions, the company is focusing on a global transformation programme to boost growth and efficiency, it said. To achieve the financial leeway required for the restructuring, Festo aims to streamline its structures in Germany.
The jobs are to be cut across various departments.
“In consultations, the company and the works council are discussing how these job cuts can be implemented as responsibly and socially responsibly as possible,” Festo said in a statement.
Globally, the company aims to save €200 million ($235 million) annually. Jobs would also be cut abroad, chief executive Thomas Böck was quoted as saying in the Stuttgarter Zeitung and the Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspapers.
Böck ruled out any site closures in Germany.
The IG Metall union voiced strong criticism of the planned job cuts and said the news had taken the employees completely by surprise.
At the end of 2025, the company employed around 20,600 staff. Approximately 8,200 of them worked in Germany.
However, the sluggish economic situation had weighed on the family-owned company’s business. Turnover fell by 3.7% in 2025 to around €3.33 billion, the third consecutive annual decline.
Festo specializes in control and automation technology for industry. The company’s products include devices that operate using compressed air, as well as software and AI systems.
