The cuts should reduce the company’s outlays by €200 million per year, a saving which includes previously highlighted plans to save on operating costs.
The new move to axe personnel affects 750 jobs in Sweden, where the consortium employs about 5,900 people. The jobs will be cut mostly from administration, and other service professions, rather than in the production line.
About 650 people face losing their jobs in Finland. A further 850 staff members will have to go across Europe, with the remainder to be made redundant in other markets.
Stora Enso underscored that all offices were being hit by savings.
“It will take place from headquarters down to all units. It is very sad news, but it is necessary,” Sweden head Mats Nordlander told the TT news agency.
“We have to find better and smarter ways to work”.
Stora Enso earlier this year announced it would shut down the Swedish factory sites Hylte Bruk and Kvarnsveden, a moved that lobbed off several hundred of jobs in Sweden
CEO Jouko Karvinen said in a statement that the cuts were inevitable.
“We have to react to the weak European economy, structurally shrinking markets in some of our areas, and our low profitability,” Karvinen said.
“We have to face reality and then try to help the employees who are affected by the plans in a responsible way.”
At the same time, it was not all bad news for staff tied to the company. Stora Enso is investing €32 million at the Skoghalls plant, plus planning a renovation of a factory in Finland.
“We have to speed up and hit the brakes at the same time to stay competitive,” Nordlander said.
TT/The Local/
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