Electrolux / To cut 2,000

Swedish home appliances company Electrolux (ELUXb.ST) announced 2,000 job losses and launched a new round of cost cuts to counter tough market conditions in Europe after posting a bigger than expected fall in third-quarter earnings on Friday.

Appliance manufacturers, including market leader Whirlpool (WHR.N), have been busy reducing costs and shifting production to emerging markets to protect their margins as they wait for recoveries to take hold on both sides of the Atlantic.

Electrolux, second only to Whirlpool in size, said it is closing a factory in Australia to concentrate on production in Thailand and will also review production in Italy.

It added that a new overhead reduction program will result in 2,000 job cuts, about 3.3 percent of its total workforce at the end of last year, bringing about 1.8 billion Swedish crowns ($282.9 million) in annual savings by 2016.

The new measures come even though Chief Executive Keith McLoughlin expects the European outlook to start improving soon.

“But we can’t run this company on hope, so we are taking action now,” he said. “We’re going to reduce our costs, and when the recovery does happen we’ll come out stronger.”

Some analysts were not convinced.

“Given that historical cost-saving programs have this far not led to structurally higher margins, we have found it hard getting enthusiastic about the new program,” DNB analysts said in a note, adding that they expect the consensus market forecast for 2014 core earnings to be lowered by 5-7 percent.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at 

via Electrolux axing jobs in fresh cost cuts after profit miss | Reuters.