Latest news with #costcuts
Reuters
6 days ago
- Automotive
- Reuters
Exclusive: Nissan offers buyouts to US workers, halts global pay rises, internal emails show
TOKYO, May 28 (Reuters) - Japan's Nissan (7201.T), opens new tab has started offering buyouts to U.S. workers and has suspended merit-based wage increases worldwide, internal emails reviewed by Reuters showed, as the automaker expands cost cuts amid weak performance in key markets. CEO Ivan Espinosa announced a new round of cost cuts this month that include closing seven production sites globally and cutting 11,000 more jobs, taking its total planned workforce reduction to around 20,000. As part of the cuts, Nissan has offered separation packages to workers at its Canton plant in Mississippi as well as to salaried workers in human resources, planning, information technology and finance, showed one email sent last week. "While substantial efforts have been made in the U.S. to help right-size Nissan, we need to take additional, limited, strategic action here at a local level," Nissan Americas Chairman Christian Meunier said in the email. The plan is "crucial for Nissan's comeback," he said. Reuters could not determine how many people have been offered buyouts or how many have accepted. A separate email reviewed by Reuters showed Japan's third-biggest automaker has also suspended merit-based pay increases globally for the current business year. The automaker said in a statement that Nissan North America is offering a voluntary separation program to a limited group of U.S. salaried employees. It declined to give more details as the process is ongoing. Cutting U.S. workforce runs counter to President Donald Trump's aim of creating jobs and boosting domestic manufacturing through initiatives including a 25% tariff on imported vehicles. But Nissan's operating profit margin in North America including the U.S., its biggest market, worsened in the business year ended March, even as it sold more cars than a year earlier. It offered buyouts to Canton workers after launching a job-cut plan in November and has now followed that up with another round. Analysts attributed Nissan's troubles to factors including an ageing line-up, a lack of hybrid models in the U.S. and excessive focus on increasing output under former top executive Carlos Ghosn whose near two-decade year tenure ended in 2018. Separately, Nissan on Tuesday said it had paid 646 million yen ($4.5 million) in compensation to former CEO Makoto Uchida and three other executive officers who left their positions at the end of March. Nissan has yet to disclose a full list of production sites it plans to close. At home in Japan, Oppama and one other plant are under consideration, sources told Reuters this month. Nissan has said it will consolidate Mexican and Argentinian pick-up truck production into a single Mexican site, and that Renault will buy its stake in their joint Indian business. It has also said it would close a Thai plant by June. On Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported that Nissan is considering raising more than 1 trillion yen from debt and asset sales which would include a syndicated loan guaranteed by the UK government. ($1 = 144.0500 yen)
CNA
6 days ago
- Automotive
- CNA
Exclusive-Nissan offers buyouts to US workers, halts global pay rises, internal emails show
TOKYO :Japan's Nissan has started offering buyouts to U.S. workers and has suspended merit-based wage increases worldwide, internal emails reviewed by Reuters showed, as the automaker expands cost cuts amid weak performance in key markets. CEO Ivan Espinosa announced a new round of cost cuts this month that include closing seven production sites globally and cutting 11,000 more jobs, taking its total planned workforce reduction to around 20,000. As part of the cuts, Nissan has offered separation packages to workers at its Canton plant in Mississippi as well as to salaried workers in human resources, planning, information technology and finance, showed one email sent last week. "While substantial efforts have been made in the U.S. to help right-size Nissan, we need to take additional, limited, strategic action here at a local level," Nissan Americas Chairman Christian Meunier said in the email. The plan is "crucial for Nissan's comeback," he said. Reuters could not determine how many people have been offered buyouts or how many have accepted. A separate email reviewed by Reuters showed Japan's third-biggest automaker has also suspended merit-based pay increases globally for the current business year. The automaker said in a statement that Nissan North America is offering a voluntary separation program to a limited group of U.S. salaried employees. It declined to give more details as the process is ongoing. Cutting U.S. workforce runs counter to President Donald Trump's aim of creating jobs and boosting domestic manufacturing through initiatives including a 25 per cent tariff on imported vehicles. But Nissan's operating profit margin in North America including the U.S., its biggest market, worsened in the business year ended March, even as it sold more cars than a year earlier. It offered buyouts to Canton workers after launching a job-cut plan in November and has now followed that up with another round. Analysts attributed Nissan's troubles to factors including an ageing line-up, a lack of hybrid models in the U.S. and excessive focus on increasing output under former top executive Carlos Ghosn whose near two-decade year tenure ended in 2018. Separately, Nissan on Tuesday said it had paid 646 million yen ($4.5 million) in compensation to former CEO Makoto Uchida and three other executive officers who left their positions at the end of March. Nissan has yet to disclose a full list of production sites it plans to close. At home in Japan, Oppama and one other plant are under consideration, sources told Reuters this month. Nissan has said it will consolidate Mexican and Argentinian pick-up truck production into a single Mexican site, and that Renault will buy its stake in their joint Indian business. It has also said it would close a Thai plant by June. On Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported that Nissan is considering raising more than 1 trillion yen from debt and asset sales which would include a syndicated loan guaranteed by the UK government. ($1 = 144.0500 yen)
The Sun
27-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Sun
Major car firm ‘may sell £500m headquarters to survive' – weeks after axing 20,000 staff and £4bn losses
A MAJOR car firm may sell their £500m global headquarters to cut costs in its fight for survival. This comes after a huge wave of cuts was announced worth a staggering £1.3 billion in addition to axing tens-of-thousands of jobs. 3 3 Cash-strapped Nissan, Japan's third-largest carmaker, may part ways with its global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, to fund the company's urgent restructuring plan. After having moved to the 22-story high-rise in 2009, the car manufacturer is now facing mountains of debt and is on track to cut 20,000 jobs, shut several of its plants and slash billions in costs. With a glitzy gallery, the flashy headquarters can showcase more than thirty motors and stands in stark contrast to their previous offices. The company have said that part of their plan has called for reviewing assets that can be sold in a desperate bid to pay for the restructuring. With its own headquarters in sight, thought to be worth approximately £500 million, Nissan would structure a deal so it could continue to use the site through a lease so its offices and operations remain in place. A company spokesperson said: "Nissan is considering all possibilities to recover its business performance, but there are no specifics to share at this point of time." The move is not unprecedented, however, with McLaren doing something similar with its HQ in Woking in recent years. , its worst annual loss in a quarter century. This has resulted in drastic measures being implemented under the 'Re:Nissan' plan The company hopes to have completed an initial £1.3 billion cost-cutting mission by 2026 with remaining losses plugged by a huge wave of closures in a bid to become profitable again. This will see a reduction in the company's workforce of 20,000 employees by 2027. Areas including sales, research, administration, development and manufacturing are all expected to be hit hard by the cuts. As of March 2024, the company had more than 133,000 staff worldwide - meaning a total 15% of its entire workforce is set to be hit. Nissan is also planning to close seven factories by 2027, including two domestic sites which are thought to be the Oppama and Shonan plants, saving £2.6 billion in the process. There have also been reports of downsizing or a partial sale of its Tochigi assembly plan and test centre facility north of Tokyo which was recently equipped with manufacturing technologies to assemble electric vehicles. To underline the dire financial situation, the motor company is even halting the development of certain models to cut its expenses. While the car company has been hit hard by the effects of Donald Trump's tariff war, Nissan's new CEO, Ivan Espinosa, has admitted the company's financial trouble started a decade ago. He said: "Let me start by explaining why we are here. "This is not something that happened in the last couple of years. "It's more of a fundamental problem that probably started back in 2015, when management thought this company could reach [annual global vehicle sales] of around eight million. "There were heavy investments both in terms of planned capacity as well as in human resources, but the reality today is we are running at around half that volume. And nobody did anything to fix that until now.' He aims to strengthen ties with fellow auto manufacturers Renault, Mitsubishi and Chinese ally Dongfeng, following a failed merger with Honda in February. It's also possible he allows Dongeng to build cars as Nissan's UK factory in Sunderland which, as it stands, does not currently face the threat of closure. But despite the financial turmoil, Nissan is slated to bring more than ten new models to North American roads soon. They also plan to introduce the next generation of Nissan Micra to Europe.
Bloomberg
19-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Stock Movers: Nvidia, Walmart, Diageo
On this episode of Stock Movers: - Nvidia (NVDA) shares are tumbling this morning as CEO Jensen Huang outlined plans to let customers deploy rivals' chips in data centers built around its technology, a move that acknowledges the growth of in-house semiconductor development by major clients from Microsoft and Amazon. The announcement, made at Computex in Taiwan, is significant for the company, but the broader market decline overshadowed the news. - Walmart (WMT) is ticking lower this morning as the retail giant warns of higher prices from tariffs. President Trump told Walmart to stop blaming tariffs for raising prices, citing the company's billions of dollars in profits last year. CFO John David Rainey said price increases will happen in May. - Diageo (DEO) shares are down in the premarket, citing a hit to its bottom line due to tariffs, but is reassuring investors that cost cuts could offset the damage. Diageo will cut costs by $500 million over three years to mitigate the impact of US trade tariffs, which will add $150 million in annual costs.
CNA
15-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
Burberry to cut workforce by almost a fifth in cost-cutting drive
Burberry has warned it could shed 1,700 jobs, about 18 per cent of its global workforce, by 2027 as the UK luxury brand announced new cost cuts in an effort to turn around the business. The company, which appointed former Coach and Jimmy Choo chief executive Joshua Schulman last July to revive its fortunes, disclosed the plan as part of a push to generate an additional £60 million (US$80.06 million; S$103.88 million) of savings by 2027. It came as Burberry said it had swung to an operating loss of £3 million in the 12 months to March 29, compared with a £418 million profit the year before. Revenue fell 17 per cent to £2.5 billion. The latest cost-cutting drive would take the planned annual savings to £100 million a year. The company said the 'organisational changes' were meant to ensure Burberry was 'fit for the future'. Burberry's shares rose 6.9 per cent on the news, trimming the decline over the past year to 26 per cent. The majority of the proposed cuts will be made in Burberry's offices globally, although there will also be redundancies in stores and at its Castleford factory in the UK, where it plans to remove the night shift. 'For a long time we've had overcapacity at that [UK] facility and that's simply not sustainable at this point,' Schulman said. However, he added that the changes were designed to 'safeguard our UK manufacturing' and it would invest 'significantly' in the factory in the coming months. 'Our intention is that we make our British heritage raincoats in the UK for many generations to come,' he said. Schulman replaced Jonathan Akeroyd as chief executive after his attempt to move the brand upmarket and compete with high-end groups such as Hermes alienated shoppers. The brand has also had to contend with a broader slowdown in the global luxury market, particularly in China, the company's main growth engine. Burberry's new chief executive said on Wednesday (May 14) that the brand was 'still in the early stages' of its turnaround, but that he was optimistic the company's 'best days are ahead' and that it would deliver 'sustainable, profitable growth over time'. Retail sales fell by 6 per cent on a like-for-like basis in the final quarter of the company's financial year, slightly better than analysts had expected. Like-for-like sales across the entire group fell by 12 per cent in the year. Schulman said 'things got a little bit choppy' in the US in the fourth quarter but insisted Burberry saw 'opportunity' in the country despite President Donald Trump's tariffs. 'The American luxury customer is very important to us,' he added. The chief executive has been aiming to refocus the company on classic outerwear products, such as its staple trenchcoats and scarves. He has also broadened the range of price points, including lower ones in certain categories. Luca Solca, a luxury analyst at Bernstein, said he had been 'expecting a couple of quarters of pain, and here is another one out of the way' but added that 'the new vision and strategy for the brand makes sense'.
