Vacon - Corporate Action

Vacon to begin personnel negotiations with office staff in Finland

Vacon Plc, Stock Exchange Release, 7 September 2009 at 10.00 am:

Vacon is starting negotiations affecting its office personnel in
order to adjust its operations to the weakening of the global market.
The need to adjust its operations arises from the decline in orders
and the difficulty in predicting market prospects in the near future.
The cost savings being aimed for will not affect customer service,
product deliveries or product development.

The negotiations will affect some 200 office personnel in the
company's Finnish operations, but will not affect R&D or sales
personnel. The aim is to agree on measures to adjust business
operations to bring them in line with the needs of customer
industries. The goal is to find ways of saving costs that will ensure
the company remains competitive and can continue to develop new
products. Measures being considered include raising efficiency in
business operations, reducing the number of office personnel employed
under fixed-term contracts, voluntary leave of absence, part-time
work, exchanging holiday pay for time off and laying people off for a
fixed period. If the targeted savings had to be achieved simply by
reducing external services and with lay-offs, it would mean the need
to reduce costs by some 30 man-years during 2009-2010."Capital expenditure on energy efficiency has unfortunately fallen
along with the decline in the economy. Since we do not know how long
the uncertainty will prevail in the market, we also have to react for
a decline in revenues by cutting costs. We aim to ensure that Vacon
is in good shape when capital expenditure starts to pick up again,"
comments Vacon Plc President and CEO Vesa Laisi.

Vacon employs altogether more than 660 people in Finland, in Vaasa,
Tampere and Vantaa.

Vacon in brief
Vacon's operations are driven by a passion to develop, manufacture
and sell the best AC drives in the world - and nothing else. AC
drives are used to control electric motors and in renewable energy
generation. Vacon has R&D and production units in Finland, the USA,
China and Italy, and sales offices in more than 25 countries. In 2008
Vacon had revenues of EUR 293.2 million and globally employed 1,200
people. The shares of Vacon Plc (VAC1V) are quoted on the main list
of the Helsinki stock exchange.

Driven by Drives, www.vacon.com

VACON PLC

For more information please contact:

  * Mr. Vesa Laisi, President and CEO, phone: +358 (0)40 8371 510,
    between 2.00 pm and 3.30 pm
  * Mr. Sebastian Linko, Director, Corporate Communications, phone:
    +358 (0)40 8371 634, between 10.00 am and 2.00 pm

Distribution
NASDAQ OMX Helsinki
Main media
Financial Supervision Authority