FW:Japan's Prima Meat to cut workforce after mad cow

[Guest guest]

http://biz./rf/011127/t23095_1.html

 

Tuesday November 27, 2:51 am Eastern Time

 

Japan's Prima Meat to cut workforce after mad cow

 

TOKYO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Japan's Prima Meat Packers

Ltd said on Tuesday it would slash its workforce by

about 30 percent by March 2005 to help it weather

damage from price falls and the outbreak of mad cow

disease in Japan.

 

Japan's third-largest meat processor said it planned

to cut about 700 employees from its workforce of

2,174. That would help it shave an estimated 6.6

billion yen ($53.20 million) from personnel costs over

the next three years, it said.

 

Most of the job cuts would come through the expansion

of an early retirement plan, voluntary retirements and

natural attrition.

 

``The environment our company is in has taken a sudden

turn for the worse,'' Prima Meat said in a statement.

 

``So more radical restructuring methods in addition to

our new mid-term business plan are now needed.''

 

Japanese consumers have ignored government assurances

that Japanese beef is safe for consumption, fleeing

instead to foreign beef and other types of meat after

two cows were confirmed to be infected with mad cow

disease.

 

With the double blow of falling meat prices and

demand, Prima Meat forecast sales to drop three

percent to 273 billion yen in the 2001/02 business

year to March. Net loss is forecast at 13 billion yen

for the year, compared with a loss of 7.88 billion yen

a year earlier.

 

For the first half ended September 30, Prima Meat

posted a group net loss of 6.07 billion yen on sales

of 142.33 billion yen, up 2.9 percent year-on-year.

 

Prima Meat said the job cuts would result in a special

loss of around 3.7 billion yen in the next three years

to March 2005. It plans to book 3.0 billion yen of

that in the current year through next March.

 

The meat packer also said it would close one domestic

plant, spin off another plant as a separate company,

and step up its overseas production operations.

 

Earlier this month, Japan's largest meat supplier,

Nippon Meat Packers Inc , cut its full-year net profit

forecast by five percent, forecasting a rapid slowdown

in sales.

 

Shares in Prima Meat ended Tuesday trade up two yen or

2.5 percent at 82 yen, compared with a 1.04 percent

drop in the Nikkei 225 share average .

 

The shares have fallen more than 17 percent since the

first mad cow case was discovered on September 10,

compared with a 4.1 percent rise in the Nikkei over

the same period.

 

($1 equals 124.04 Yen)

 

 

 

GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month.

http://geocities./ps/info1