• Small German sites Hamburg and Bitterfeld to be closed
• Customers to be supplied from larger locations
• Options for staff affected to be negotiated with employee representatives
• 3,200 jobs will be cut worldwide, around 2,150 of them in Germany.
  

September, 25, 2026 - On September, 11, Evonik announced on September, 11 its plans to close two smaller sites in Germany by next year. At the company’s Hamburg site, around 50 employees currently supply products for the cosmetics and personal care industry. In Bitterfeld, around 40 employees produce chlorosilanes. These businesses will continue, concentrated mainly at larger German sites. In the coming months, Evonik and employee representatives will negotiate socially acceptable solutions for the employees affected.

"We have strong businesses that successfully meet our customers' needs for high-quality products," says Claus Rettig, interim Chairman of the Executive Board of Evonik. "At the same time, our structures when it comes to production, administration, and laboratories are too fragmented in some areas. This leads to unnecessarily high costs and weakens our competitiveness. That's why we also need to bundle our locations and concentrate our structures in a targeted manner in order to work more efficiently, drive innovations forward more quickly, and thus strengthen our competitiveness."

The Hamburg site is to be closed by the middle of next year. The activities for cosmetics and personal care products will be bundled together with the technological know-how at Evonik’s larger site Essen-Goldschmidtstrasse, thus continuing the business. Essen is already a major site of the Care Solutions business line, to which the Hamburg site also belongs. Like the entire chemicals industry, this business is also suffering from weak global demand and persistent pressure on profit margins in international competition.

"We are aware that this decision represents a drastic change for the employees at the Hamburg site," says Maximilian Morin, who is responsible for the Care Solutions business line. "The decision was made after intensive evaluations of various options and represents the best solution for the successful development of the business."

Bitterfeld is scheduled to close at the end of April 2027. The decision follows persistently challenging market conditions for high-purity silicon tetrachloride, including increasing supply from Asia and competitive pressure. At the same time, plant utilization has remained at a lower level for an extended period which does not support economically viable operations. Various options including alternative operating concepts, a reduction of capacities, mothballing, and scenarios to sell the site were examined. None of them promised a sustainable economic perspective in the long term.

"This decision was not easy for us. We are aware of the importance of the site for our employees and for the region. At the same time, we have the responsibility to ensure the long-term competitiveness of our business," says Emmanuel Auer, head of the Smart Effects business line, which the chlorosilane business is part of. Going forward, Evonik ensures the supply of customers primarily through deliveries from its Rheinfelden site in southern Germany.

Together with employee representatives in Hamburg and Bitterfeld, the next steps will now be discussed. "For us, dealing with our colleagues at Evonik in a responsible way is our top priority, even when difficult decisions have to be taken," says Hussin EL Moussaoui, Chairman of the General Works Council. "That's why it is important for us to communicate the necessary changes transparently at an early stage. This creates clarity and gives us the necessary time to work together toward viable and socially acceptable solutions for all affected.

On September, 22, the company also announced it is sharping its growth strategy. Over the next three years, Evonik´s business portfolio will be set up according to roles, and specific tasks will be assigned to the major sites in Germany. At the same time, targeted growth projects will improve the geostrategic balance.

Evonik is securing financial leeway for these investments through the Evonik Tailor Made restructuring program, which aims to further lower the Group's cost base. As part of this program, 3,200 jobs will be cut worldwide, around 2,150 of them in Germany.

As part of the annual strategy meeting, the Executive Board and Supervisory Board discussed plans up to 2030 in detail. "The Executive Board, Supervisory Board and employee representatives share one conviction: We are in a structural and economic crisis in our industry," says interim CEO Claus Rettig. " We will use this polycrisis to change old structures and position ourselves better. Even in this crisis, many parts of our business are growing. We will therefore concentrate growth on our strengths, on the right future topics and on the most lucrative markets. At the same time, we will create leeway through better cost positions."

The comprehensive transformation of Evonik will thus continue at all levels. The portfolio will be strengthened through targeted investments in growth markets. In Canada and Slovakia, for example, growth projects have been launched in healthcare and biotechnology businesses with a total volume in the three-digit million euro range.

The individual business units will consistently be aligned according to their roles and managed accordingly: as growth drivers or cash generators. For example, the new business line Designed Polymer Solutions is currently being founded. It bundles growth areas from the aerospace, automotive and gas separation markets, including biogas and hydrogen.

Evonik sees good opportunities for growth particularly in Asia and America. Further investments in these regions are currently being examined. Growth opportunities in Asia and America are also to be exploited more quickly and consistently from the existing European production network, which mainly consists of the German sites. The goal remains a balanced distribution of revenue in the three regions Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

In Germany, a clear profile will be defined for each of the six major production sites, which serve as guidelines for their future development. Implementation will begin in the next few days.

At the same time, Evonik is withdrawing from activities for which there are no prospects within the company. "Only as leaders in what we do will we be able to establish ourselves at the forefront of our industry in the long term," says Rettig. "The future will remain volatile, which means we must be able to react in a flexible manner to short-term changes in order to be a reliable partner for our customers in all regions of the world. Our positioning and innovative strength in many key technologies in specialty chemicals mean we have a better foundation for this than our competition."

The announced closures of smaller sites are part of this context. The divestments of the large businesses C4 chemicals (Oxeno GmbH) and infrastructure (Syneqt GmbH) are progressing as planned.

Evonik Tailor Made will enter its second implementation phase in 2027, run for three years until 2029 and seamlessly follow the first phase from 2024 to 2026.

Detailed measures will be completed by the end of 2026. They include not filling positions that become vacant, early retirements and voluntary departures against severance payments. "Evonik was and is known as a company that lives social responsibility and maintains an intensive dialogue with employee representatives," says Chief Human Resources Officer Thomas Wessel. "This transformation again is one that we are tackling together, and together we will successfully bring it to fruition."