Iranian sanctions hit ailing glass maker

Struggling Inowroclaw-based glass maker Huta Irena said it will have to lay off 180 of its 200 employees at the end of January due to the EU’s sanctions against Iran.

The company exports 80 percent of its production to Iran.

The remaining 20 staff will be made redundant in February.

EU foreign ministers are set to discuss further sanctions and an oil embargo against Iran on January 23 in Brussels to increase pressure on the country to rethink its nuclear programme.

Representing the ailing firm, receiver Grzegorz Floryszak, told the daily Gazeta Wyborcza that the embargo as well as the weakening of the Iranian currency were the final nail in the company’s coffin.

Floryszak did not name the Iranian trade partner, saying only that it was a private company and had had contracts with its Polish partner for 13 or 14 years.

The company filed for bankruptcy in September 2010 and the receiver had tried unsuccessfully to sell the firm in February 2011 for 40 million zlotys.

It is reported that the current price being discussed is about 20 million zlotys, with firms from Warsaw, Radom and near Inowroclaw reportedly interested.(jh)