German battery maker Varta has announced that it is closing a plant in southern Bavaria due to the loss of a major customer, with 350 employees out of a job. Noviny Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) a Augsburger Allgemeine uviedli, that the customer who will no longer buy batteries produced at the Nördlingen plant is the American company Apple, which intends to buy batteries from China. TASR informs about it based on the report of the DPA agency. According to FAZ, the decisive factor in the decision was the price. Apple and Varta have not commented on these claims.
Bavarian Economy Minister Hubert Aiwanger called the closure of the plant in Nördlingen a “severe blow” for the region and “another warning sign” for the German economy. Varta has recently undergone a major restructuring after going out of business in 2024 in a loss of 64.5 million euros. Although the company managed to secure new customers and new contracts in recent months “not nearly enough” to save the plant in Nördlingen, Varta CEO Michael Ostermann told the economic magazine WirtschaftsWoche.
