Jungheinrich AG will continue to improve its competitiveness and business results by restructuring its production plants, the company says.

Subject to board approval this month, Jungheinrich will combine production of electric, diesel and LPG forklifts at its Moosburg, Germany, site, where the company's warehouse system and battery electric forklifts are currently produced, creating a centre capable of producing 15,000 forklifts a year.

The planned restructure would see the gradual phase-out, by mid-2004, of Boss Manufacturing Ltd's IC forklift plant at Leighton Buzzard in the UK, which had produced negative results since being taken over in 1994.

"Efforts to operate the plant on a cost-covering basis are showing progress, (but) the plant still fails to make a positive contribution to the group, and no such contribution is assured in the long term," Jungheinrich said in a statement.

The closure would affect 180 employees at the UK site, but talks with companies around the Leighton Buzzard site would occur with a view to transferring employees.

Jungheinrich said the orientation of its sales organisation in 2001 and 2002 to direct sales, rather than using distributors, had been a success.