In southern Lazio a Belgian IT company arrives to hire up to a hundred people. In Ferentino Henkel is closing the detergents factory it chose in 2021 as its only one in Italy
14 November 2026, 16:11
On 11 November Cegeka, a Belgian IT services multinational, announced that within a few months it will open a centre in southern Lazio, most probably in the province of Frosinone, near Cassino. At first it will hire between 50 and 100 people; if demand grows, as the company expects, within two or three years it will reach 300-400. The centre will work for the car industry as it converts to sustainable mobility and for aerospace, and will look for its technicians among graduates of the local universities. Among the reasons for the choice, the chief executive also cited the willingness of local institutions to support the investment: welcoming newcomers, in Ciociaria, is a well-practised art.
Keeping those already there works less well. In the same days the unions at Henkel's plant in Ferentino, in the Frosinone area, received a different message: the German detergents multinational will stop production on 30 June 2027, lay off 102 people and keep 24, working in logistics. Brands found in almost every home, from laundry to dishes, come out of that plant, and it was the group's only detergents factory in Italy. It had become so in 2021, when Henkel closed the Lomazzo plant, near Como, explaining that Ferentino had «sufficient capacity and adequate facilities to serve the national market». Five years later, that site is no longer good enough: according to the unions the group cites higher costs, competition and households buying cheaper products, and on 17 November it will say where production is moving.
The town lies within a complex industrial crisis area, recognised in 2016 for dozens of municipalities in the provinces of Frosinone and Rome; further south, in Cassino, the Stellantis plant has also been struggling for some time. The detergents factory had been among the first to open in the area after the intervention of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno, the public body that financed investment in the South. The State, in short, spent money to bring industry to Ciociaria; now it spends money so that workers with no factory left can wait.
The bill has a precise entry. For 2026 last year's budget law set aside €100 million to extend, in complex crisis areas, the extraordinary wage guarantee fund for companies that have already used up the amount allowed by the ordinary rules, and the exceptional mobility allowance for workers left without a job. It is public money, paid by INPS to those entitled to it, and in July the Lazio Region authorised the exceptional mobility allowance for the unemployed in the Frosinone and Rieti areas. If a company leaves, the worker who stays at home is supported by taxpayers; if a new one arrives, the wages are paid by whoever does the hiring.
The Belgian centre is still looking for a building to move into; in Ferentino there is one that has been producing for about half a century, and from July 2027 it will serve only for logistics.
This article was prompted by a news item published in Il Sole 24 Ore on 11 November 2026.