Glass manufacturing specialist Guardian has confirmed to economy minister Franz Fayot (LSAP) that it will close down the float glass making facility at its Dudelange site. On Wednesday the company had announced it was in discussions to merge the Dudelange site with its facility in Bascharage

The Dudelange plant is old and requires the sort of investment the company is unwilling to make in times of uncertain demand. In a statement to parliament on Thursday, Fayot said that Guardian was of the opinion that “demand for industrial glass would not recover until 2023” due to slowdowns in the car making industry and construction sector. One can say that Guardian is the “first industrial victim of the corona crisis,” Fayot told MPs.

The closure of the float glass facility does not mean that the Dudelange site will shut down completely. It still has a laminate making facility. However, Fayot said that a significant number of jobs will be lost and that the news is “certainly not a good moment in the history of Luxembourg industry.”

In 2015 Guardian Europe moved its headquarters from offices at the Dudelange site into brand new headquarters in Bertrange.

Alain Rolling from the OGBL union told RTL that following a meeting with management the decision to merge to Dudelange and Bascharage float glass facilities was a “fait accompli that we will have to live with.” The union is demanding that a guarantee from the company to retain all 450 jobs at the two facilities and that Guardian Group commits to the investments it had planned in Luxembourg.

Two years ago the then minister of economy Étienne Schneider met with the heads of the American industrial group to talk about investments that the minister said would “foster Guardian's footprint in Luxembourg.”

Paperjam wrote on Wednesday that in 2018 the Bascharage site generated a profit of €2.65 million on a turnover of €48.8 million euros while the Dudelange plant made a €1.8 million profit on a turnover of €38.77 million.

In 2004 Guardian received the Luxembourg-American business award for its contribution to the grand duchy’s economy. It is also one of the “silver” sponsors of the Luxembourg pavilion at the Dubai world expo, which will now open in October 2021.