Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips said today that it would cut 6,000 jobs worldwide to cope with the global slowdown which pushed its results into the red.
A spokesman for Philips Ireland said its operations would be unaffected by the job cuts. Philips employs 110 sales and marketing and distribution staff in Ireland. It also employs 50 in the North.
The company said it suffered a net loss of €186m for 2008 after a fourth quarter loss of €1.47 billion, largely due to a revaluation of its Lumileds diode light unit.
For 2008, sales were down 1.5% at €26.39 billion. In 2007, the company had a net profit of €4.16 billion.
The fourth quarter loss was worst than analyst forecasts for €1.2 billion and reflected a €1.3 billion revaluation of Lumileds. In the same time a year earlier, the company had made a profit of €1.4 billion. Fourth quarter sales fell by 8.9% to €7.62 billion.
'The fourth quarter results reflect the serious consequences of the global financial and economic crisis and the measures taken by management accordingly,' CEO Gerard Kleisterlee said.
In view of falling demand, management was giving 'absolute priority to cashflow, at the expense of profit if necessary, and to speeding up restructuring and adjustment measures,' he said.
The company hoped for savings of some €400m on an annual basis by the second quarter of this year, he added. A company spokesman said all divisions would be affected by the job cuts but declined to give further details.
