Wartsila Corporation cuts 400 jobs globally

Updated on: Monday, October 18, 2010

The Finland-based power plant and equipment company Wartsila Corporation today said it will reduce around 400 jobs globally in its support functions and information management services.

"To safeguard our competitiveness and good performance into the future, we need to shape and dimension our support organisations to this changing market environment. This will have an impact on many jobs, and unfortunately we cannot avoid redundancies," Wartsila Corporation Executive Vice President & CFO Raimo Lind said.

Out of the 400 job cuts, 130 are planned for Finland and the remaining reductions are planned to be carried out in 30 countries.

An analysis of the support functions of the company has indicated that there are overlapping activities and a need to adjust organisations to a new way of working and to lower volumes, Wartsila said in a filing to the London Stock Exchange.

The company, however, is planning to establish strong competence centres in the field of Information Management activities in China and India to support its growing Asian markets.

At the beginning of this year Wartsila had announced its plan to reduce around 1,400 jobs globally and to move part of the manufacturing from Europe to China. The current plan regarding the support functions is part of this overall plan.

All in all, the number of employees has reduced globally during 2010 by 840 people. At the end of September 2010, Wartsila had 17,704 employees, while it had a headcount of
18,541 at the end of 2009.

Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, the consultation process has been finalised and the process to reduce 570 jobs, which includes the support functions, is proceeding according to plan.

Also, in France a streamlining process that includes the support functions is ongoing.

Wartsila Corporation cuts 400 jobs globally

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