Krusell´ s factory re-opened, but somewhat isolated due to the flooding in Thailand.

Publié 2011-11-10

On October the 12th Krusell announced that they are evacuating personnel and closing down factory due to the flooding’s in Thailand.
This is Thailand’s worst flooding in modern time, which have directly affected about 2 million people and forced thousands of factories to shut down or halt their operations. Krusell’ s factory is located in Sena, seven miles north of Bangkok, where the water level now slowly decreases daily with 1-2 centimeters per day. In Bangkok it is the opposite where the water levels increase and is causing major damage.
- We have re-opened the factory again after 13 days of production downtime. We have started the production but with reduced capacity. There are major problems regarding transportation to and from the factory and in the supply of components. We have coped quite well considering the circumstances, but one should not assume that all risks are reviewed. Would dykes around us to give way, we will immediately have a few feet of water in both our warehouse and factory building, says Ulf Sandberg, CEO at Krusell. To assist staff in Bangkok, we have rented apartments near the office, so that those whose homes are affected, or those with problems to get home because floods, can stay overnight in a safe place.
- Regarding deliveries, after the summer we have built up the Swedish stock for the Christmas sales which means that the stores will not be significantly affected at present. What we see now is that our OEM sales will be affected as we are producing on behalf of external clients, and thus not put the products in stock. It also becomes difficult for us in the current situation to make up for lost productivity and the difficult accessibility limits on the roads. We cannot allow our employees to work overtime when we have a responsibility to take them safely to and from work. We are therefore only running the production during the daytime so everyone can get home by daylight, he concludes.
Krusell continues to daily monitor the development with Swedish personnel in place in Thailand.
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Facts:
Krusell International AB with 130 million SEK in turnover, an annual production of over 3 million cases, and more than 500 employees is a Swedish company exporting high-end cases around the world. After 20 years in the cell phone industry, Krusell is established as one of the leading brands in its niche. Besides cases for mobile phones, Krusell also produces cases for digital cameras, laptops, MP3-players, GPS and portable gaming. Moreover, Krusell are also a subcontractor to Sony, Samsung, Sanyo, Honda, Toyota and LG. The headquarters of Krusell are located in Mölndal, Sweden.

For information about Krusell, please visit www.krusell.se
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For further information and comments, please contact:

Mr. Marcus Krusell
Managing Director, Krusell Thailand Co Ltd.
Mobile: +66 81867 3313
E-mail: marcus.krusell@krusell.co.th

Mr. Ulf Sandberg
Managing Director, Krusell International AB
Phone: +46 31 338 00 05
Mobile: +46 709 300 300
E-mail: ulf.sandberg@krusell.se

Ms. Malin Levin
Marketing Manager
Phone: +46 31 338 00 15
E-mail: malin.levin@krusell.se