New head of P&G: Crisis equals job cuts is the wrong approach

According to Sotirios Marinidis, 44, general manager of P&G Romania, saying that the crisis goes hand in hand with personnel cuts is an unfortunate approach as far as most segments of the FMCG market are concerned, in the absence of an abrupt consumption decline. “Where we are concerned, I could say job cuts are our very last option. We made cost cuts on distribution, logistics, media, and replaced business travel expenses with video-conference calls,” says Marinidis, the Greek who has been at the helm of the 400 million-dollar Romanian operations of American giant P&G since July. The FMCG market slid by 7% in real terms last year and could recover in the second half of 2010, according to company forecasts. Marinidis is at his second term on the Romanian market, after coordinating the company’s marketing department between 2000 and 2005 from his Bucharest office. He added that on coming back to Romania, he was most surprised by the changes that have occurred in commerce through the development of store chains.