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LONDON, June 4 (Reuters) - British luxury carmaker Aston
Martin plans to shed up to 500 jobs as it seeks to bring
its cost base into line with reduced sports car production
levels, it said on Thursday.
The job cuts come a week after Aston Martin confirmed that
Tobias Moers, CEO of Mercedes-AMG, would become chief executive
on August 1, replacing Andy Palmer.
The 107-year old firm said the job losses reflected lower
than originally planned production volumes and improved
productivity across the business. An employee and trade union
consultation process will be launched in the coming days.
Aston Martin, famed for being fictional secret agent James
Bond's car of choice, has seen its share price plummet since
floating in October 2018.
Last month it posted a deep first-quarter loss after sales
dropped by almost a third due to the impact of the novel
coronavirus outbreak.
"The measures announced today will right-size the
organisational structure and bring the cost base into line with
reduced sports car production levels, consistent with restoring
profitability," it said.
It said its first sports utility vehicle (SUV), the DBX,
which is key to boost volumes and appeal to new buyers including
more women, remains on track for deliveries in the summer and
has a strong order book.
Aston Martin is also reducing costs and removing
non-critical expenditure in other areas, including contractor
numbers, site footprint, marketing and travel.
It said the restructuring is expected to deliver total
annual savings of about 38 million pounds ($47.6 million).
Restructuring costs are expected to be about 12 million pounds.
Shares in Aston Martin, down 78% over the last year, closed
Wednesday at 68.9 pence, valuing the business at 1.05 billion
pounds.
($1 = 0.7976 pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton and Sarah
Young)
Aston Martin Lagonda (AML)
