CEO Eric Rondolat announced this this morning during the presentation of the quarterly figures.
Blow for the Netherlands still unknown
Signify had almost 32,000 employees worldwide at the end of last year. Only a small part of these, 2000 people, work in the Netherlands. The company cannot yet say how many forced redundancies will occur in the Netherlands
The reorganization that was started last year should ultimately result in cost savings of around 200 million euros per year. The costs are now much too high, Rondolet believes. Moreover, the results are disappointing, especially in the important sales market of China.
Turnover plummets
And this is also evident from the results. Turnover fell by almost 11 percent in 2023 compared to a year earlier to 6.7 billion euros. Profit fell from 532 million euros to 215 million. That is somewhat distorted, because in 2022 profits were boosted by one-off windfalls of 184 million euros.
In addition to the disappointing results in China, the company also says it is experiencing problems from the dangerous situation in the Red Sea, where shipping is constantly threatened by attacks by the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“We are seeing an increase in delivery times of up to twelve days because ships have to follow a different route due to the conflict. And the container price has risen,” Rondolat said.
Hoop
The CEO expects that the ‘challenging circumstances’ will continue this year, but says he has confidence in the chosen strategy. “Over the past quarter, we introduced a new business model and measures that will improve our performance.”
