Posten Norden to slash 2,000 jobs
Posten Norden plans massive lay-offs in a move to cut costs as profits tumble – blamed on dwindling letter volumes and increased competition from digital communications, reports The Swedish Wire. The company – formed last year through the historic merger of Danish Post Danmark AS and Swedish Posten AB – posted a fourth-quarter net loss of 696m kronor ($96m). The same period a year earlier it made a 794m kronor profit.
In a move to save money Posten Norden now initiates further cost-cutting programmes.
“It will mean fewer employees. And it is too early to say anything about that. But we cut almost 4,000 during 2009, across the two countries. It will not be as many during 2010, but perhaps we can say 2,000,” the company’s chief executive officer Lars G Nordström told the TT news agency.
A number of jobs would be cut through retirements, but about 1.1bn kronor has also been set aside for lay-off compensation packages.
Still, the board proposed a dividend (to the Swedish and Danish states) of 1.44bn kronor.
Nordström told the news agency that the dividend is “acceptable” as the full year result was boosted by capital gains of 2bn kronor from the sale of a stake in the Belgian post office.
The company, which today has around 47,000 employees, is 60% owned by the Swedish state, while Copenhagen owns the remaining 40%.
The firm reported a turnover of 11.6bn kronor, down from 12.1bn kronor the year before.
Posten’s customers shouldn’t be affected by the lay-offs, Nordström said.
