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To cut about 6,000 direct jobs, or 11% of workforce
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To cut up to 2,000 indirect positions
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Cuts to be fully implemented by 2025
(Adds CEO quote, detail on workforce)
By Anna Ringstrom and Marie Mannes
STOCKHOLM, June 8 (Reuters) – Autoliv , the world’s biggest maker of airbags and seatbelts, plans to cut around 8,000 jobs, joining the growing ranks of companies speeding up cost savings in the face of high inflation.
The Swedish company, which counts many of the world’s top automakers among its customers, said on Thursday it would cut around 6,000 direct jobs and up to 2,000 indirect positions, such as employees not working directly on production lines.
The cuts, which equate to about 11% of direct jobs and the same proportion of indirect jobs at the company, will include the closure of several sites in Europe, and be fully implemented by 2025, it said.
“These initiatives will continue to optimise our geographic footprint for a more effective structure,” CEO Mikael Bratt said in a statement. “We intend to simplify and consolidate how we operate in all areas.”
The cutbacks mirror those at a swathe of companies grappling with high inflation and a faltering global economy, including in the auto industry.
Last month, Volvo Cars said it was axing 1,300 positions and electric carmaker Polestar said it was shedding 10% of its workforce.
Autoliv said in January cost inflation in 2022 was the worst in three decades, and that it sought to pass those costs on.
Bratt told Reuters it was price negotiations with customers based in Europe that were the most challenging, a region that has high inflation and a tough macroeconomic environment.
“What takes time is that these negotiations are very detailed, it is basically component by component, plant by plant, as we go through this,” he said.
Autoliv’s Swedish-listed shares were up 3.4% to 988 Swedish crowns at 1011 GMT.
The company, whose rivals include ZF and Joyson Safety Systems, reiterated a full-year outlook given in April for an increase in its adjusted operating margin to around 8.5-9.0%. (Reporting by Anna Ringstrom and Marie Mannes in Stockholm and Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; editing by Terje Solsvik and Mark Potter)