(Reuters) – Dulux paint maker AkzoNobel is considering additional plant closures and expects to carry out most of its previously announced staff reductions in the first quarter of 2025, its management told Reuters on Wednesday.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
AkzoNobel, which has been battling a post-COVID slowdown, rising raw material costs and customer destocking, last May launched a cost-saving plan aimed at improving the efficiency of its supply chains.
It has since announced plant closures in Ireland, the Netherlands and Zambia, to be completed by end-2024, and plans to cut about 2,000 jobs globally by the end of next year.
KEY QUOTES
“We will announce more (plant closures) in the first quarter of 2025,” CFO Maarten de Vries said.
“The execution (of job cuts) will be done mostly in the first quarter of next year,” CEO Greg Poux-Guillaume said, adding most of the cuts would take place in Europe.
“The ultimate savings will be fully captured by the end of next year,” Poux-Guillaume added.
BY THE NUMBERS
The job cuts are expected to save AkzoNobel 120-150 million euros ($129 million-$162 million) annually, Poux-Guillaume said. The cost of the staff reductions is 100-130 million euros, which will mostly affect third and fourth quarters of this year, he added.
($1 = 0.9281 euros)
(Reporting by Anna Peverieri and Dimitri Rhodes in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi)
