Steilmann suffers from personnel shortage

With every mall or hypermarket launch, employers in the clothing industry lose tens and even hundreds of staff, writes this week’s BUSINESS Magazin. “Employers are all talking about how much they have invested in equipment, but how much have they invested in people?” Romeo Pomponiu, the general manager of Steilmann Bukarest, asks, hinting that Romanian clothing manufacturers could import labour from Asia in order to prevent bankruptcy. “In fact, these measures are not just imports, but a long-term investment, which entails many risks, conducted out of necessity,” Pomponiu is quick to correct himself. The company’s majority shareholder is Italian clothing manufacturing group Miro Radici, which bought Steilmann International in 2006, the company that Romeo Pomponiu has a partnership with for the Romanian business. The Steilmann plants in Craiova, Satu Mare, Sibiu, Sighetu Marmatiei and Mangalia employ 3,300 people, half the level of personnel eight years ago.