Finnish food company Fazer Group plans to lay off 400 employees at Fazer Ravintolat Oy as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The company said that due to the outbreak, employees have been working from remote locations.

The Finnish government has limited the movement of people in the region, which affected the Fazer retail business units, including Fazer cafés and Gateau bakery shops.

Fazer group communications and branding executive vice-president Ulrika Romantschuk said: “The situation is very serious and may go on for months. We are doing our utmost to ensure business continuity.

“We are adapting our assortment and services according to the falling number of customers and we are also prepared to close units.

“To minimise the impact of potential lay-offs on our employees we will look into possibilities to offer them temporary work at Fazer’s other units and discuss utilising leaves with them.”

Fazer has initiated collaboration negotiations with employees of Fazer Ravintolat Oy to temporarily lay off the entire personnel.

The company noted that negotiations would involve around 400 Fazer employees in Finland.

In 2019, Fazer’s Experience visitor centre had 230,000 visitors. As a precautionary measure, the company has cancelled all the guided tours and group events for the time being.

Fazer added that Covid-19 has harmed the entire tourism and restaurant sector.

The death toll due to outbreak of Covid-19 has increased to 7,900 as of the end of 17 March. Total cases exceed 198,000 while the recoveries stand at 81,000.

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