Ericsson is planning to shut down all its production in Sweden, as part of accelerated restructuring plans aimed at lowering costs. According to internal documents seen by Swedish paper Svenska Dagbladet, the Network Products division will shed almost 3,000 jobs in Sweden this year, after already letting go 1,500 last year. Its remaining production sites in Boras and Kumla will be closed, bringing to an end 140 years of manufacturing in Sweden.
Ericsson employs in total around 15,000 people in Sweden, down from over 20,000 in 2010. The restructuring is expected to save it about SEK 3 billion. The company has been in talks with unions for some weeks on the plan and plans to offer voluntary redundancy to the affected employees from October, the paper said. It will proceed to lay-offs if not enough staff take up the offer, and aims to complete the process by Q1 2017.
An Ericsson spokeswoman said Sweden was not exempt from its restructuring plans, but said the details of the plans would be discussed with unions and employees first. Ericsson said in July that it was stepping up its cost-reduction efforts and aimed to save more than the previous plan of SEK 9 billion by next year in order to face the market slowdown. Shortly thereafter its CEO Hans Vestberg stepped down, reportedly under pressure from shareholders seeking a better performance from the company.
Swedish Industry Minister Mikael Damberg said he had spoke with Ericsson chairman Leij Johansson about the company's plans, as well as union leaders, the paper reported. He said the government was setting up a special team to deal with the affected sites and employees.
