Ardo plant in Groß-Enzersdorf appears headed for closure
Saturday 17th October 2026 on 19:15 in
Austria
The Ardo frozen-food plant in Groß-Enzersdorf, a town in Gänserndorf district, appears close to shutting down after 61 turbulent years, ORF reports. Hopes that the factory could continue operating have likely been dashed after repeated insolvencies, ownership changes and job cuts.
Unilever opened the plant in 1965, describing it as the world’s first combined ice cream and frozen-food production facility. It made Eskimo ice cream and initially employed 500 people. Despite a sharp fall in ice cream consumption in 1969, the company continued to expand.
In the 1980s, as many as 1,900 employees produced 30 million litres of ice cream and 30,000 tonnes of frozen food a year. After fluctuations in sales and a name change to Unifrost, ice cream production ended in 1997.
The business became Austria-Frost. Around 500 farmers continued supplying vegetables from the Marchfeld, while the workforce fell to 530. Employees accepted significant pay cuts to keep their jobs. Then-manager Rainer Herrmann said the plant was too small and costly compared with European competitors, with labour costs 30 per cent above the European average.
The factory ran into further difficulties in the late 1990s and was sold in 2001 to Vorarlberg-based 11er Nahrungsmittel. That company went bankrupt in 2005, when the plant had about 300 employees. After protests by workers and a dispute over its future, Saxon entrepreneur Volkmar Frenzel bought the factory.
Frenzel said the plant returned to profit during its first ten months under his ownership, after increasing raw-material production to 44,000 tonnes, 7,000 tonnes more than in 2005. Two years later, however, Frenzel was in financial trouble and the plant was sold again, this time to Belgian food company Ardo.
Ardo’s general director, Jan Haspeslagh, expressed hope in 2008 that the company could secure the plant’s future with its workforce and farmers. The factory then drew little public attention for about 15 years, but staff numbers fell. Pay disputes led to strikes three years ago, which now appear to have foreshadowed the plant’s likely closure.