Global downturn hits Heidelberg hard

Difficult market conditions prompt Heidelberg to cut 500 jobs worldwide, but the local company holds its numbers, pending a review in two-to-three months' time.

A release issued by the company announced that 500 jobs are to be shed across the globe by the end of financial year 2010/2011. The move comes as Heidelberg attempts to combat "a prolonged period of sluggishness" that is affecting the printing industry.

Andy Vels Jensen, CEO of Heidelberg ANZ, said that these job cuts would not have an immediate effect on local employees.

"At this time we don't anticipate any major headcount reductions in Australia and New Zealand, however we have had in place for some time now a hiring freeze and we will review the situation in two-to-three months and then make whatever decisions are required to keep our business as successful as it has been for the past five years," he said.

Heidelberg's preliminary sales in the first quarter of the 2008-09 financial year amounted to between 640 and 660 million Euro, down from the previous year, which was 742 million Euro.

Now, Heidelberg will focus on four key areas to prepare itself for the future; these include: reducing R&D expenditures, restructuring post-press packaging activities, significantly increasing the proportion of purchases made outside the Euro zone, strengthening international production sites, and achieving a substantial reduction in structural costs.

Vels Jensen acknowledged that "business is definitely much slower than in the last and previous years" throughout ANZ, but he believes that concentrating on these key areas will allow Heidelberg to combat these trying times.

"We have in place efficiency and productivity programs to get us through these leaner times, alongside cost reduction programs," he added.