Siemens boss says job cuts may be necessary in cash saving drive
GERMAN industrial giant Siemens opened the possibility of cutting jobs as part of a cost-saving drive to enable it to compete with its rivals, its chief executive said yesterday, with business proving tougher than expected.
“As a leading company, we want to be better than the competitors. We don’t want to bob along somewhere in the broad masses of the middle,” chief executive Peter Loescher said in a statement.
The comments came as Loescher outlined a new savings operation for Germany’s biggest company by market value in a closed meeting with about 600 of the company’s managers in Berlin. The company has seen falling sales in the global downturn, and has reported big drops in orders this year.
Among the programme’s goals will be to tackle high production costs, review underperforming businesses and simplify internal processes, Loescher said, without specifying how much money Siemens aims to save.
The company employs around 410,000 staff and is expected to have to cut around €4bn (£3.2bn).