Cities await jobs axe
Bombardier factories at Belfast and Derby face bad news
BOMBARDIER has launched another massive round of jobs cuts that will see 7,500 staff go – 10pc of its global workforce – the second such move in eight months.
The latest round of cuts could mean further job losses at the Canadian company’s hard-hit British aerospace business, based in Belfast, along with the prospect of redundancies at Bombardier’s train-manufacturing operations in the UK, which are centred in Derby.
Although the company is looking to add to its 3,400 UK rail staff, having won some major contracts this year, further announcements of where cuts will fall in specific countries are expected in the next few weeks and months.
In February, the engineer’s new boss, Alain Bellemare, began shedding 7,000 staff as revenues fell and losses grew, with about 1,000 of the positions expected to go in the UK.
Hardest hit in Britain was the group’s Northern Ireland aerospace business which designs and makes wings and fuselage parts for the company’s family of civil aircraft. About 20pc of the British aircraft workers – around 1,000 – were earmarked for redundancy.
However, the latest round of cuts announced yesterday reveal the depth of the troubles Bombardier is in and how savagely the chief executive must wield the axe to get it back on track.
The latest scheme is part of a fiveyear plan which aims to generate annual savings of $300m (£246m) by 2018.
Montreal-based Bombardier is battling to get its finances under control after development of its C Series airliner ran out on control, with delays and cost over-runs running up a $6bn bill.
The company is forecasting a hit of between $225m and $275m to its finances in restructuring charges, which will be spread over 2016 and 2017.
In its last set of annual accounts, for the year ending December 31, Bombardier reported revenues down 9.5pc at $18.2bn, and the net loss was $5.3bn, up from $1.2bn last time round.
The company took $5.6bn of writedowns and provisions, mainly on the C Series jet.
Revealing the latest job losses yesterday, Mr Bellemare said the company was deleveraging its balance sheet and focusing on future profits: “The actions announced today will ensure we have the right cost structure, workforce and organisation to compete and win in the future.”
Particular targets of Mr Bellemare’s plans are administrative and non-production functions, and he said some of the job losses would be offset by hiring for ramping up of key programmes such the C Series, the Global 7000 business jet and rail contract wins.
Simon Hamilton, economy minister in the Northern Ireland Executive, said: “This comes as a great shock to the Northern Ireland workforce.
“It had been our hope the announcement in February represented a peak in potential job losses at the company.”