The bankruptcy of the ‘Snaigė’ fridge factory in Alytus was caused by Chinese dumping and the closure of the Asian market

Vidmantas Janulevičius, President of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists (LPK), states that the long-standing bankruptcy of the Alytus-based “Snaigė” fridge factory was caused by Chinese dumping and the closure of the Asian market.

“With the entire market closing and, undoubtedly, due to the dumping of Chinese products in various sectors, ‘Snaigė’ faced a very difficult period in terms of how to sell all that production, compared to Asian manufacturers,” V. Janulevičius told ELTA.

According to him, “Snaigė’s” main export markets were the former Soviet Union states and the Asian region.

“The ‘Snaigė’ brand had been well known there since Soviet times,” added the president of the Confederation of Industrialists.

Speaking about the factory workers who would lose their jobs following the bankruptcy and the impact on the infrastructure, V. Janulevičius expressed the hope that experts in their field in Alytus would not remain unemployed for long.

“I believe that, in the long run, there should certainly be more investment, as Alytus is developing and expanding. We can see that the number of industrial enterprises in Alytus itself is also growing, and there is an increasing amount of new investment,“ he said.

According to V. Janulevičius, there is a noticeable trend whereby quite a few export-oriented Ukrainian companies are setting up specifically near Alytus. The reason for this is the short distance to the Polish border.

ELTA reports that the Alytus-based fridge manufacturer “Snaigė” applied to the Kaunas Regional Court this Wednesday to initiate bankruptcy proceedings.

The only fridge factory in the Baltic states, located in Alytus, was established in 1963. Its production capacity stood at 550,000 units per year, and at the height of its operations, the company employed 650 people. 

The company currently employs 190 people, all of whom will receive redundancy notices. 

Once the court has approved the bankruptcy proceedings, employees and creditors will be paid in accordance with the procedure laid down in the Insolvency Act.