2,000 'Supermax blade' employees in Thane to be sacked

Thane: Supermax, which manufactures shaving blades, is all set to shut its 72-year-old factory at Thane on December 5, the Thane unit operator, Keni Abraham informed. The company has around 2,000 employees at its blade factory at Teen Hath Naka Junction and they will all lose their jobs due to the closure. A letter regarding the closure has already been sent to the employees. Supermax owns around 8acre of land at Teen Hath Naka in the MIDC Wagle Estate area.

Earlier, Thane's Eknath Shinde Shiv-Sena faction spokesperson Naresh Mhaske met with the management as employees were being paid their salaries for the last few months.

A Supermax official said, “Ever since the pandemic struck, the company's balance sheet was impacted severely and as a result employee salaries were delayed.” Since the pandemic, the company has also been facing a crunch to pay the bills of raw material suppliers.

Meanwhile, the employees have approached the labour court demanding their salaries and to stop the closure. Anita Markande said, “The company provides us with our bread and butter. Seeing it shut down is painful. I have worked here for a decade and have also been actively involved in protests demanding our salary. We will be on the streets now.”

Thane resident Ramesh Shah said, “It's shocking that such a big company which had an association with Gillette is now in this condition. One by one, all companies are shutting down in Thane and that's really sad.”

A retired Supermax employee, Arvind Raut said, “I feel some builder is involved in this. If you check the financial condition of Supermax, you will see it is expanding rapidly in other countries. Is a multinational company under such stress? Impossible. The land is worth around Rs1000 crore and the company wants to monetise it.”

Thane-based social activist Sneha Singh said, “A few days ago, 'The Paper Products' company in Majiwada also announced its plans to shut its factory and sell the land. People are losing their livelihoods due to the booming real estate market. Now a builder will come and buy the Supermax and Paper Products land for development.”