485 jobs, or around 7 percent of the workforce, were cut, according to a presentation on the half-year balance sheet published on Tuesday. About half of the cuts affected temporary and fixed-term workers, a spokesman said. Wacker Neuson also introduced short-time work for a time.
CEO Karl Tragl announced in July that the cost-cutting measures would continue: “We will continue to use the next few months intensively to adjust our cost structures.” Overall, the group, which also has a production site in Linz, wants to reduce its costs by 40 million euros.
Market recovery not before 2025
Tragl made it clear that he does not expect the market to recover before next year. The construction industry experienced a real boom after the Corona slump, but collapsed in the face of the crisis on the real estate market. Wacker Neuson therefore significantly reduced its sales and profit forecast for this year in July and expects earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to halve in 2024 in the worst case scenario.
In the second quarter, the order situation stabilized, but incoming orders were still below sales, the CEO told analysts. In the first half of the year, sales fell by 12 percent to 1.20 billion euros, and EBIT fell by more than half to 83.8 (176.7) million euros.
