Expensive energy forces Unilin factory to shut down for three weeks: a thousand employees are temporarily unemployed

The factory in Wielsbeke, where the QuickStep floors are produced, employs 1,100 people. “A thousand can fall back on temporary unemployment under the new system of the energy crisis. They keep 70 percent of their normal wages,” said spokesman Sander Laridon.

Unilin, the European division of the American listed flooring giant Mohawk, sees its insulation panels still selling smoothly. Demand for parquet, laminate and vinyl floors, on the other hand, is falling 20 to 30 percent, according to the presentation of the figures for the third quarter. At the same time, the prices of raw materials and energy are sky-high. “They’re up 300 to 400 percent,” Laridon says. “In the raw materials we feel this fairly immediately, for energy prices it goes drop by drop as contracts have to be renewed.”