Hard times for Finnish manufacturer - jobs at risk

Apart from the order backlog for the fourth quarter (up 3%), the Finnish electronics manufacturer Teleste's report for the last quarter and full year 2019 showed decreases across the board. Net sales were down 12.1% YoY to 58.5 million. Operating profit fell by 60.6% compared to the same period last year and landed at 0.9 million. Teleste says in a press release that it will initiate co-determination negotiations in order to adapt its operations. The negotiations may lead to possible redundancies, temporary lay-offs and part-time employment contracts due to production and financial reasons. The reason for the adjustments is as stated earlier, the ongoing technological transformation in the Network Products business area that has led to decreased demand for traditional access network products. This change decreases the related capacity need in production and supporting functions. “According to our estimate, the deliveries of distributed access architecture products will commence during the second half of 2020. However, the production of these new products does not require a corresponding amount of production capacity,” the company writes in the press release. The negotiations will concern HFC business unit employees in Teleste Corporation's Operations, Logistics and Sourcing and customer support department at the Littoinen plant in Finland. The potential need for personnel reductions is estimated to maximum 35 people.