Automotive industry German automotive supplier Schaeffler cuts thousands of jobs

One month after the merger with Vitesco, the automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler announces the reduction of 4700 jobs in Europe, 2800 of them in Germany. This corresponds to around 3.1 percent of the total workforce.

Ten locations in Germany and five more in Europe will be affected, the company, which will employ 120,000 people worldwide after the merger, announced at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany. Two of the five European sites are to be closed completely. The package of measures will be implemented between 2025 and 2027. The aim is to save 290 million euros per year from 2029. 75 million of this will be related to the merger with Vitesco.

"The program is necessary in the current environment in order to secure the Schaeffler Group's long-term competitiveness. We will implement it in a socially responsible manner and with a sense of proportion," said Schaeffler CEO Klaus Rosenfeld.

In the first nine months, Schaeffler - still without Vitesco - was doing comparatively well economically. Currency-adjusted sales rose by one percent to 12.233 billion euros. The Automotive division also saw a currency-adjusted increase of 0.2 percent - mainly due to further incoming orders in e-mobility. Before special items, interest and taxes, profit for the first nine months amounted to 713 million euros, compared to 964 million euros in the same period of the previous year.

SDA