Seat manufacturer Lear is going to sell assets in Russia

The leadership of the American company Lear, which manufactures seats and electronics, has decided to leave finally the Russian market. Lear President and CEO Ray Scott said the company intends to sell all Russian assets in the first half of 2023, but he noted that some legal difficulties are significantly slowing down the process. In Russia, the company has a plant for the production of seats, which has been idle for almost a year, writes the portal Quto.ru.

The head of Lear explained that until February 2022, the Russian enterprise employed 1,000 people, but today only 50 to 60 employees are working on the maintenance of this production site. Due to downtime in the third quarter of last year alone, the company suffered a loss of $19.9 million (1.37 billion rubles). Ray Scott also noted that due to the geopolitical situation, he does not hope to get a fair price for his assets in Russia, as for the last year they have "significantly depreciated." The head of the company has not disclosed the expected volume of losses. Lear, founded by Lear Corporation, has been operating in Russia since 1998. The main client of the plant was the Gorky Automobile Plant.

The Lear plant in Volokolamsk, Moscow Region, began to work in 2005 and produced electronic harnesses. In 2009, the Lear industrial site was launched in Kaluga, where car seat kits were assembled for the Volkswagen Group Rus and PSMA Rus plants, as well as the manufacture of components for polyurethane foam seats.