Continental’s Results Have Slowed Down And Redundancies Are Possible

Compared to last year, Continental Group’s turnover for the first nine months of 2001 has increased from 7,438 billion Euro to 8,240 billion Euro (a rise of about 10.8%). The Group’s operational result (EBIT) of 238 million Euro (385 million Euro in 2000) has especially been affected by the North American tyre business and a non-recurrent expenditure of 58 million Euro due to the reconstruction process, begun in the second quarter and which has resulted in the closure of the truck tyre production site in Herstal (Belgium) and the remoulding site in Bad Nauheim.

The Group’s result before tax has fallen by 160 million Euro down to 96 million Euro. After tax of 44 million Euro, the result is 104 million Euro more than last year’s amount, and the earnings per share are 0.35 Euro (1.

16 Euro in 2000). Presenting the quarterly results at a press conference, Manfred Wennemer, who was appointed Managing Director on 11th September 2001, explained the Group’s directional change, concentrating on profits, results and cash flow and on cutting down financial debts, which also involves focusing on profitable transactions and devolving profit-and-loss responsibility on to the Business Units. Additionally, Wennemer announced some bigger restructuring measures: “All parts of the company are under scrutiny, and there are no holy cows”, he emphasised, adding the comment that factory closures and redundancies could be a possibility.