Schwarz Group Pours €300 Million Into East German Bakery as Wage Catch-Up Deal Extends to 2031
Veröffentlicht: 17.07.2026 um 01:42 Uhr, Redaktion boerse-global.de
Jörg Aldenkott, chief executive of Schwarz Produktion, called it a “financial heavy lift”. The price of eliminating the pay gap between the company’s eastern and western German sites: wages at the eastern factories will not fully catch up until July 2031, under a new collective pay agreement reached with the food-and-beverage union NGG.
The deal, effective retroactively from 1 January 2026 and running through 31 December 2031, lifts eastern wages in stages. This year, overall pay will rise 5.75 percent — 3.5 percent took effect in July, a further 2.25 percent is scheduled for December. Workers also receive a one-time net recovery allowance of €156.
From 2027, wage growth in the eastern plants will be tied to the collective-bargaining level in the state of Lower Saxony. Any increases negotiated there will be adopted for the eastern workforce, topped up by an additional two percentage points each year. The goal is full parity by 1 July 2031.
Investment Blitz Alongside Salary Hikes
The core sites covered by the new contract are the Bonback bakery in Halle, the Bon Pasta plant in Erfurt, and the Mitteldeutsche Erfrischungsgetränke GmbH (MEG) with facilities in Jessen, Leißling, Roßbach and Weißenfels. In total, 15 sites and roughly 3,000 employees fall under the agreement; the core operations alone employ about 1,700 people.
For skilled workers, the monthly pay bump by the end of the adjustment period could reach as high as €1,000. Meanwhile, the Schwarz Group has announced major capital spending at those locations. Over €300 million is being funnelled into the Bonback bakery in Halle, which is expected to create around 400 new jobs. Another €17 million has been earmarked for the MEG plant in Jessen.
Previously, eastern salaries at Schwarz’s factories were sometimes one-third lower than those at comparable operations in the west. The NGG negotiator Uwe Ledwig said the agreement was “long overdue” to finally tear down the wage wall between east and west.
Franziska Kersten, a SPD member of the German federal parliament, welcomed the result as a first important success in the collective-bargaining conflict within the food industry. Fair wages, she argued, not only strengthen purchasing power but also provide more reliable old-age pensions. She urged other companies in the region to follow suit.
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