250 Grundfos production staff face redundancies
Due to reduced order intake as a result of the general uncertainty that has been influencing world economy in recent weeks, further intensified by the war in Iraq, Management in Grundfos A/S, the pump group's Danish production company, decided to reduce the number of staff by 250.
Lars Aagaard, Managing Director of Grundfos A/S
Over the past few weeks stocks have been increasing and staff have been asked to phase out outstanding off-hours.
We hope this is a temporary falling-off, and we hope to be able to offer the staff in question work again later on. However, whether this will be possible depends completely on the general development and order intake, says Managing Director, Lars Aagaard, Grundfos A/S.
The reduced order intake is particularly acute in the Danish factory, partly due to reduced sales in the countries close to the Iraqi war zone, such as Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Turkey and Greece, as well as the important American market.
On the other hand, things are going better in other parts of the world, for instance the markets in South East Asia, where the Grundfos Group's factories are not short of orders.
Group Management hopes for and expects improvements in the situation after a clarification of the situation in Iraq is reached, and consequently expects the Group as a whole to achieve the general goals of 2003.
Grundfos A/S in Denmark is both the oldest and largest production company in the Grundfos Group. Approx. 3,600 people are employed there and last year the turnover was 3.3 billion DKK of which 91% derives from export earnings. At 1 January 2003 the former Process Director Lars Aagaard toke over the position as CEO from Poul Vesterbæk.
Source: Grundfos Holding A/S
