Michelin Restructuring Program Could Save 150 million euros Annually

Michelin’s domestic labour reorganisation program, (announced on 17 June) will save the company between 100 and 150 million euros a year, according to Deutsche Bank research analyst Gaetan Toulemonde. Restructuring charges are estimated at a maximum of 200 million euros to be accounted for in the first half of 2009 of which half will be paid for in cash and the other half as assets write offs.

In an investor’s note published today, the financial analysts explained that while the company’s complex statement appears to have been designed to avoid to much clamour after Continental and Goodyear’s recent difficult plant closures, “it looks like they aren’t doing much.” The bank’s take on the situation is that “some plants will be downsized, and the restructuring program involves 1,100 people on top of a pre-retirement program of 1,300 people. Thus, when normal attrition is included, approximately 3,000 people will leave the group by the next 18 months out of a French workforce of 25,000…of which 12,000 in production.”