Short-time work despite full order books

Due to the worldwide shortage of electronic components, the wallbox manufacturer go-e has to register 48 employees for short-time work as of 1 October. This affects employees from production and warehousing at the Feldkirchen site in Carinthia. Due to repeated corona-related restrictions, a key supplier cannot deliver the ordered quantities of electronic components on time. go-e has already called off assured components from second suppliers. Therefore, the charging technology specialist is forced to adjust its own production capacities to the volume of available components on a weekly basis. The supplier situation is expected to remain tense until the end of the year, which is why the duration of short-time work is initially set at three months. Due to the dynamic situation, the actual extent can only be determined in retrospect on a monthly basis.

The go-e human resources department and the management have been in intensive dialogue with the AMS and social partners for several weeks, as the supply shortage was already becoming apparent. Employees were informed about the supply situation and possible consequences at an early stage. go-e Managing Director Susanne Palli, who is responsible for personnel and finances among other things, thanks the public partners for the temporary employment model: “With the short-time work, we can offer our qualified team clear prospects for the future in challenging weeks. At the same time, go-e is preserving some of the financial leeway it has built up, which is highly important for strategic investments right now in order to establish our company in Europe as a major manufacturer of smart electric car charging stations in the long term as well. In this position, we will continue to create additional jobs in the future and contribute to the economic development at our locations.” Short-time work is usually associated with reduced pay. In order to provide financial coverage for the employees affected by short-time work, go-e compensates the wage to 100 per cent within the scope of the legal possibilities. The company currently employs 94 people at three locations, the majority at the administration and production site in Feldkirchen in Carinthia.

Since last year, the Carinthian green tech company has been operating in an environment of exponentially increasing demand for its own products and global restrictions on the production volume of suppliers. “Our purchasing team has acted far-sightedly in this difficult environment and thus contributed to the continuous growth of the company. We have so far been able to ensure the steadily increasing production capacities despite the tense situation also by acquiring alternative suppliers and building up storage capacities. However, if suppliers have to restrict their production again and again due to restrictive corona restrictions, a bottleneck can no longer be averted at some point. Many large manufacturers and competitors have already felt this in recent months. Now, unfortunately, it has also hit us,” reports go-e Managing Director Vincent Marbé, who is responsible for purchasing and production, among other things.

Due to the high demand for charging stations from go-e, delivery times have been consistently several weeks since last year. go-e strives to realise already communicated delivery times and to continue to keep the times between order receipt and delivery as short as possible. However, due to the tight supply situation, customers should expect delays. The wallbox manufacturer will inform affected customers individually in this case.

The Carinthian company develops and produces the go-eCharger, an intelligent charging station that is available in different variants for stationary as well as mobile use. The product can be used to charge all electric cars and plug-in hybrids registered in Europe with numerous convenience functions. The demand for the go-eCharger continues to develop exponentially in 2021 compared to the previous year. Despite the current supply situation, go-e intended to produce a six-figure number of charging stations by the end of the year, nearly quintupling last year’s quantity.