Thursday 28 March 2024
 
»
 
»
Story

Siemens plans to cut 7,800 jobs

MUNICH, February 7, 2015

Siemens chief executive Joe Kaeser applied finishing touches to his overhaul of the German industrial group yesterday with the announcement of 7,800 job cuts designed to streamline management and speed decision-making.

The roughly two per cent cut to the trains-to-turbines group's global workforce will generate productivity gains of about €1 billion ($1.14 billion) by the end of 2016, Siemens said, as the company strives to close a profitability gap with rivals such as General Electric and Switzerland's ABB.

The profit margin at Siemens' industrial businesses fell to 10.2 per cent in the past quarter, from 11.3 per cent a year earlier, against 14.3 per cent at ABB and 18.6 per cent for GE's industrial division.

'This completes the restructuring of our company,' said Kaeser, who took over in a boardroom coup in 2013 and outlined his vision for the company in May last year.

A senior company source said the group's portfolio restructuring is also mostly complete.

Since Kaeser took over, Siemens has agreed to buy US oilfield equipment maker Dresser-Rand and the turbines division of Rolls Royce.

On the disposal side, it has shed its hearing-aids unit, exited its BSH household appliance joint venture and is hiving off its healthcare operation as a standalone business.

About 3,300 of the job cuts, which Siemens said should be completed within two years, will be in Germany, where it employs 115,000 people. Siemens pointed out that it had hired more than 11,000 people since the start of its financial year in October and said it would avoid compulsory redundancies.

At its height in 2001 Siemens employed almost half a million people and had annual sales of €87 billion. At the end of the past financial year, its 343,000 employees generated sales of €72 billion.-Reuters




Tags: Jobs | Siemens | Germany |

More Industry, Logistics & Shipping Stories

calendarCalendar of Events

Ads