Grammer (Amberg / Germany; www.grammer.de), a supplier to the vehicle manufacturing industry specialising in seats for utility vehicles, aims to cut between 450 and 700 jobs by 2009 to improve profitability. In Germany, however, there will not be any compulsory redundancies, said a company spokesperson in reply to an enquiry from Plasteurope.com about statements made by CEO Rolf-Dieter Kempis (54) in a German newspaper. Kempis has headed the company since 1 August 2007.

With this measure, Kempis wants above all to raise the EBIT margin of the automotive division. At the same time, the company, which has a global workforce of 9,300 (2,500 in Germany), is striving for greater process orientation instead of the present structure that is organised into departments. In Q1 2007, Grammer posted sales of EUR 491.9m (Q1 2006: EUR 448.1m), and has lifted its growth forecast to 7% for the year as a whole. EBIT fell slightly from EUR 24.5m to EUR 24.3m, but the decline was heavier in the automotive sector (down from EUR 14m in 2006 to EUR 11.3m).