24.10.2013

Cargotec to restructure Hiab

Cargotec has announced plans to restructure its Hiab crane business in order to improve profitability and "speed up strategy implementation and to ensure long-term competitiveness".

The changes include 'adjustments to Hiab's sales, services and central support organisations' in order to reduce complexity. Other measures will look at improving efficiency and reduce operational costs.

The company is anticipating laying off around 250 people, of which 45 will be in the Netherlands, 35 in Sweden, 12 in Finland, and 158 in other countries.

Employee cooperation negotiations have already kicked off in the Netherlands, with other negotiations due shortly. The company said that planned measures could result in changes in responsibilities as well as transfers of duties between staff.

The cuts are estimated to generate annual savings of approximately €20 million at a one off cost of €12 million in restructuring costs. Hiab employs around 3,000 people worldwide.

Vertikal Comment

Hopefully these changes are further moves to the decentralisation programme that Cargotec implemented last year. However the group has a bit of a reputation for almost back-to-back restructuring, which can be highly disruptive to customer facing operations.

Hiab's star has been rising lately as it recovered from early centralisation restructuring which was then reversed. One has to believe that this latest adds and builds on those most changes, rather than being a sop to the stock market.