Ecco in Martin, central Slovakia (source: Facebook)
Ecco, the Danish footwear brand long seen as a symbol of Western investment in post-communist Slovakia, will shut down its factory in the northern city of Martin this summer, cutting some 650 jobs and coming to a close nearly three decades of production.
The decision, confirmed by Ecco’s Slovak spokesperson Matej Kováč, follows years of mounting financial pressures, a global slump in demand and faltering orders from the parent company. Since opening in 1998, the Martin facility had produced more than 50 million pairs of shoes and was one of six global factories in Ecco’s portfolio.
“As part of a global assessment of our production network, we had to make the difficult decision of shutting down the Martin plant,” said Petr Milan, CEO of Ecco Slovakia. “We are preparing compensation packages and support measures in line with our collective agreement to help our employees through this difficult transition.”
Trade unions were bracing for a phased reduction in operations but said they were blindsided by the scale and speed of the planned closure. “We expected a gradual closure, not a mass layoff over the summer,” said union representative Pavol Húšťava, a 25-year veteran of the plant. Around 70 percent of the workforce are women, many of them single mothers or close to retirement. “These people are not easily re-absorbable into the local labour market,” he said.
The closure comes as a sharp blow to the region, which is still reeling from previous industrial exits. In nearby Košťany nad Turcom, Trim Leader — formerly part of Johnson Controls — shut its car seat cover plant in 2022, gradually laying off 442 workers. The facility remains empty and on sale for over €5 million. That followed an earlier closure in Bardejov, where another 356 people lost their jobs in 2020.
