Electrolux announces 3,000 job cuts

Electrolux is cutting more than 3,000 jobs from its global workforce as it battles against falling sales in Europe and the US. The world’s second biggest home appliances company has also warned that it will miss its full year profit targets.

The manufacturer, which also makes the AEG and Zanussi brands, employs 57,000 staff around the world, with 600 working in the UK. The company says the job cuts will affect all its operations and will start before the end of the year and into 2009.

It is also planning to move production to low-cost countries as part of a cost-cutting programme to be to be completed by 2010.

The company has seen a fall in sales for electrical goods including washing machines, vacuum cleaners and cookers, particularly in the last two weeks of November and early December.

Its operating profit reached 2.7bn crowns (£226.4m) in the 11 months to November. The drop in demand now means it will not be able to reach its minimum 2008 profit target of 3.3bn crowns (£276.3m).

In a statement, the company says: “As a consequence of these negative developments… it is no longer possible to achieve the outlook of an operating income in 2008 of 3.3bn to 3.9bn crowns.”