Chemical fertiliser producer Amonil Slobozia will embark on a major restructuring programme this year, and aims to complete the process in 2004. The programme will trigger up to 35% layoffs and the outsourcing of some auxiliary activities. The number of employees will go down because of the increasing natural gas prices.
The first stage of the programme will start in the following weeks and will target a 15% job cut, so the number of employees will be reduced from the existing 1,170 people to some 1,000.
The restructuring process begins in one of the best financial years ever reported by Amonil. The company logged net profit worth $1.8 million in nine months this year, up from $25,000 in the year-ago period.
“Profit soared, but we will not be able to maintain it unless we start restructuring, considering the price of natural gas went up some 50% in the last year. For about six months every year, the foreign market is vital to us, so we must make our activity more profitable in order to be able to export,” Amonil general manager Victor Dobrescu told Ziarul Financiar.
Natural gases are the main raw material for the chemical fertiliser output, while the price growth has boosted the company’s costs, as Amonil is no longer an eligible consumer.
“Under the circumstances, in order to maintain competitive prices for our fertilisers, we must let some 750 – 800 people go throughout next year, either by additional job cuts, or by outsourcing some of the auxiliary activities (such as security and maintenance),” Dobrescu mentioned.
For the three quarters this year, the company posted sales worth $45 million, up from $33 million in turnover in the year-ago interval.
With $1.8m in nine-month net profit, Amonil is one of the best stocks on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE), considering the price/net profit per share ratio.
laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro