Porsche cuts another 1,000 jobs as sales slide deepens

PORSCHE, the German luxury car maker, is to cut a further 1,000 jobs in the current financial year, bringing the total to 1,850 by 31 July 1993. The company blamed falling sales of expensive sports cars in the US and Britain, and economic conditions in Germany and Japan.

As a result of the latest round of cost-cutting, Porsche will have reduced its workforce to 6,200 from 9,000 in 1990/1. A spokesman for the company said that the strength of the mark against other currencies exacerbated the difficulties for export-oriented manufacturers.

A spokesman for Porsche in Britain, where it employs 88 people, said that it did not expect to be affected by the cuts as there is no production in the UK. 'The move by Porsche AG will help us manage better the supply of cars here. It is our declared policy not to have over-supply of Porsches in the UK.'

Porsche will try to keep redundancies to a minimum by offering early retirement and voluntary resignations. The company said there would be an organisational restructuring to increase efficiency.

Porsche said sales in the year to 31 July fell by 15 per cent to DM2.7bn (pounds 1.1bn), but this was above the DM2.5bn originally expected. No profit figures were released, but analysts expect the company to do little more than break even. There has been speculation that the company may need to seek a partner to survive the slump.

Foreign sales during the year amounted to 49 per cent of Porsche's total shipments, down from 60 per cent a year earlier.