The German car maker announces savings to recover from the losses during the Corona crisis. In the course of this he plans to cut numerous jobs. Now it is becoming known that there are probably more jobs than expected.
Daimler made a billion dollar loss in the second quarter due to the corona pandemic and, according to a media report, now wants to reduce its personnel costs significantly more than previously known. As the "Handelsblatt" reports, citing group companies, the annual expenditure should decrease by around two billion euros. So far, the management board had announced savings of 1.4 billion euros.
According to the "Handelsblatt", a total of around 20,000 jobs will be cut in the room. This should take place in a socially acceptable manner. HR Director Wilfried Porth recently announced that more than 15,000 jobs had to be cut. He hadn't given any further details. According to the "Handelsblatt", Daimler did not comment on the new savings target.
The group announced on Thursday evening that the Stuttgart-based carmaker posted a loss before interest and taxes of 1.68 billion euros in the second quarter from April to June, according to preliminary results. Aside from the prior-year quarter, in which Daimler had fallen due to provisions related to the diesel scandal, it was the Group's first quarterly loss since the 2009 financial and economic crisis.
Daimler boss wants to sharpen strategy
Daimler already suffered a significant drop in profits in the first three months of the year due to the corona pandemic. From January to March, profits fell 92 percent, according to the company, and amounted to 168 million euros. Sales fell by six percent to EUR 37.2 billion.
As the "Handelsblatt" reports, Daimler boss Ola Källenius now wants to sharpen his strategy. "We want to go back to our core as a manufacturer of modern luxury vehicles. The future of Mercedes is more at the upper end of the vehicle segments," he told the newspaper. He rejects an expansion into lower passenger car segments, such as his predecessor Dieter Zetsche did. "We don't want to compete with volume manufacturers," said Källenius. The CEO takes the French luxury goods group LVMH as a model when realigning the model portfolio. "With us, price is more important than quantity," he said.
Källenius intends to consistently expand profitable sub-brands such as AMG and Maybach. "If we focus on luxury as our core, we are on the right track," said the Daimler boss of the newspaper. In terms of electromobility, Källenius therefore has high hopes for the EQS electric limousine, which will compete with the Tesla models with a range of more than 700 kilometers from 2021.
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