The textile machinery manufacturer plans to cut between 300 and 600 jobs, mainly at its Winterthur headquarters and in Germany.
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Some 300 jobs will be cut across the group as a whole, according to a press release issued on Thursday. However, Rieter does not rule out increasing this number to 400-600 depending on “market and volume trends”. At the end of June, the total workforce stood at 5,555.
When contacted by the AWP press agency, a spokeswoman said that the cuts would be made mainly in Winterthur and Germany. The staff consultation phase will begin shortly.
Affected by two particularly difficult years and sluggish demand, the company has decided to restructure in a bid to achieve annual savings of around CHF80 million ($93.2 million). Rieter describes its “Next Level” package of measures as a “performance programme”.
The Winterthur-based industrial company blamed the difficult market conditions of the past two years, which have been marked by “disruptions” in the supply chain and a general rise in costs. Demand from Rieter’s customers remains at a low level.
In the first half of the year, new orders fell by 63% to CHF 325 million. Sales nevertheless rose by 22.2% to 758 million, despite the cancellation of some orders due to the earthquake in Turkey. Even with this return to profitability, Rieter’s overall performance was below the expectations of the analysts contacted by AWP.
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