Nissan to cut 20,000 jobs globally

TOKYO : February 9, 2009 - Nissan has announced it is to cut 20,000 jobs worldwide due to the sharp fall in sales last year.


The job cuts follow the motor marque’s decision to axe 1200 at its UK plant in Sunderland last month. A Nissan spokesman was unable to confirm if UK jobs would be affected this time, or if marketing roles were under review.

Last April, Nissan promoted former UK marketing chief Simon Thomas to its top European marketing role as part of a restructure and Paul Wilcox was appointed to run the marque in the UK (MW February 7,2008). In November, the Renault-Nissan group appointed OMD to run its £650m pan-European media planning and buying business, after deciding to consolidate the accounts, previously split between Carat and OMD.

Nissan’s sales were down 18.6% last year. The company says that it only sold 731,000 vehicles worldwide between October and December 2008. The Japanese carmaker says it expects to make a loss of ¥65bn (£2bn) for its current financial year.

Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn said the the firm's "worst assumptions on the state of the global economy have been met or exceeded. The global auto industry is in turmoil. Nissan is no exception."

Nissan says the 20,000 job cuts would be made between March 2009 and March 2010.

The reduction will see the size of its global workforce fall to 215,000 from 235,000.

[Source : MarketingWeek]