Linkosuo initiates restructuring negotiations in Finland due to financial challenges

The Tampere-based bakery-café company Linkosuo has begun restructuring negotiations due to production and financial reasons. These discussions, which commenced today, involve the entire Linkosuo Group, including the parent company Linkosuo Oy, Linkosuo Café Oy, and Linkosuo Bakery Oy.

“The financial performance is not at the level we would like it to be. Therefore, we are exploring ways to operate more efficiently,” stated Linkosuo’s CEO, Jyrki Karlsson. At the end of last year, the bakery employed around 50 staff, the parent company had eight employees, and the café had approximately 90 full-time equivalent workers. The restructuring talks could potentially result in the termination of employment for up to ten employees from the bakery and parent company, and up to ten from the cafés, affecting a total of twenty employees at most.

Karlsson noted that staff savings are just one component of the broader cost-cutting measures, with efficiencies also sought in other areas, such as external services. The company is financially stable, according to Karlsson, who emphasized that the aim is to stabilize the profit levels of both business units to ensure future investments in production equipment, facilities, and inventory.

Linkosuo operates four lunch restaurants or cafés in the Helsinki metropolitan area and seven in the Pirkanmaa region. At this stage, Karlsson did not comment on whether the negotiations might lead to site closures, stating that the site network is continually being developed. Bakery representative Mika Koivula expressed that the announcement of the negotiations came as a surprise to staff, indicating there had been no prior notice. Karlsson remarked that the bakery industry in Finland has faced several challenges in recent years, including the impacts of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, rising raw material and energy costs, increasing interest rates, and declining consumer purchasing power. The news of the negotiations was first reported by Aamulehti.