Frankenthal, Germany, November 17, 2005--According to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Tarkett, the German manufacturer of flooring, is planning to cut 43 of the 180 jobs at its site in Konz, Germany.
The newspaper reported that of the staff who are to lose their jobs, 20 will be made redundant, while the remaining job cuts will be achieved over the next two years through part-time schemes for older members of staff and other measures.
The company was quoted in the article as saying that the site will not be competitive without these measures; Tarkett has suffered due to high raw material costs and tough competition on the market, which makes it difficult for the company to raise its prices.
It said that staff of the site are also to work for 40 hours per week for the same pay. In exchange, management has given a guarantee for the future of the site until the end of 2009. In the first nine months of the current financial year, the group's ebita dropped by 4.5 per cent compared with the same period of last year, to 76.7m euros. Turnover rose by 4.7 per cent to 1.2bn euros.
