ALSO to cut 230 jobs

ALSO will cut 230 of its workforce of 1,500 Keystone

The ALSO Group, which offers products and services to the computer market, has announced it is to cut 230 jobs in its systems division, ALSO COMSYT.

The group, a subsidiary of the Schindler elevator and escalator company, said the cuts had to be made following “changes in the IT market” over the past few months which had resulted in low capacity use.

A statement from ALSO headquarters in Hergiswil, central Switzerland, said there would also be a reduction of the number of service points in Switzerland, with a future focus on the economic centres of Zurich, Basel and the French-speaking part of the country.

ALSO said the job reductions would be made “as considerately as possible, paying special attention to potential cases of hardship”.

At the same time, ALSO said it expected a small, consolidated group loss for the first half of the year, despite making an operating profit. It added this was due to “extraordinary depreciations and restructuring costs”.

The company said it would no longer be possible to reach its earnings target for the current year, set at being as close as possible to the SFr27 million ($15.32 million) profit made in 1999.

The group’s other subsidiaries are unaffected by the restructuring measures.

swissinfo with agencies