Business News
technotrans AG to introduce short-time at Sassenberg from March 1, 2009
Tuesday 17. February 2009 - The Board of Management of technotrans AG has agreed with the Works Council to introduce short time (4-day week), initially for a period of six months, from March 1, 2009 in addition to the measures already implemented.
Short-time will provisionally be limited to the Sassenberg location and will not affect the Services Division or Technical Documentation business unit. “We already took extensive measures in October 2008 to reduce capacity in anticipation of weak business in the first quarter and half of 2009. These human resources measures have now brought technotrans’ structures in line with the present, lower volume of business,” remarked Henry Brickenkamp, Spokesman of the Board of Management. “By cutting back on time accounts, we have also made use of another important tool in an effort to preserve our flexibility.” The elimination of time accounts will now be replaced by the introduction of short-time. “The level of orders has not yet improved and in the present circumstances we cannot expect it to do so in the short term,” commented Brickenkamp at a company meeting on Tuesday in Sassenberg. “But as matters stand, we believe we will be able to absorb the impact of the current slackness in the market by going onto short time. If necessary, we are absolutely determined to continue responding very flexibly to all the challenges that could arise.”
In view of the uncertain planning basis afforded by the current level of orders of the printing press manufacturers, it is not yet possible to predict how long this measure will have to remain in place. “We have decided to implement further cost-cutting measures,” added Finance Director Dirk Engel, “but this time the priority will be to protect jobs, not to make further redundancies. We expect that this measure will significantly ease the pressure of costs, but it is too early to put an exact figure on its impact on revenue and earnings. Despite the challenging circumstances, we are determined to use every possible option for stabilising and optimising our profitability.”