Injection moulder Perlos (Vantaa / Finland; www.perlos.com) has reported an operating loss of EUR 42.8m for the first six months of 2007 (compared with a EUR 1.5m loss in the first half of 2006) following restructuring measures, including the closure or sale of nearly all its Finnish activities. This ongoing exercise is expected to be completed in Q3. Sales in the period fell by 34% to EUR 240m (EUR 355m).

Perlos president and CEO Matti Virtanen said that the company's profitability improvement programme is ahead of schedule. Personnel expenses have already been reduced by EUR 100m a year and good progress has been made in improving quality. Inventories have been reduced by 41% since the beginning of the year, he said. All Perlos plants are now being operated strictly in accordance with the principles of "lean manufacturing". The company has won new orders from a number of customers, which will be in production in 2008. Positive figures could be expected soon, said Virtanen.

Perlos produces technical parts with a focus on mobile phones. Asia accounts for 42% of group net sales, Europe 38%, with 20% coming from North and South America. At the end of June, Perlos employed 8,829 people worldwide (13,707 in 2006), of which 5,238 (7,411) were in Asia, 2,615 (4,617) in Europe and 976 (1,679) in America. Over the next few months, a further 500 or so of the remaining 700 jobs in Finland will be lost.