Farm equipment giant CNH, owner of the Case IH and New Holland lines of farm equipment, plans to lay off 300 hourly staff next month at its Saskatoon manufacturing plant, according to local news reports.
Local media outlets said the company has confirmed the employees will be laid off for an indefinite period, with Nov. 23 as their final day on the job.
According to Saskatoon radio station CJWW, employees were told that the former Flexi-Coil manufacturing plant’s operations are to be cut to one shift of about 550 people.
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CBC in Saskatoon quoted one worker as saying individual workers haven’t yet been told which of them will be affected.
Saskatoon’s StarPhoenix newspaper quoted the company as saying in a news release that the cuts come “as a consequence of the continuing weakness of the economy and a need to align production with demand.”
CNH on Wednesday posted a net loss of $35 million on $2.96 billion in revenues (all figures US$) for its third quarter ending Sept. 30. That’s down from a $253 million profit on $4.33 billion in revenues in the year-earlier period.
Net sales of agricultural equipment dropped 23 per cent in the quarter to $2.45 billion, compared to $3.17 billion in the year-earlier period.
CNH CEO Harold Boyanovsky said in the company’s third-quarter release Wednesday that it’s “on track to achieve our year-end objective of reducing personnel by 11 to 12 per cent” in its equipment operations.
That said, “we remain confident about the future of both our agricultural and construction equipment businesses and expect to see improvement beginning in the fourth quarter,” he said.
Despite the overall industry decline, CNH said Wednesday, there was “relative strength” in the highest-horsepower tractor markets in North America, where CNH said it saw an increase in its tractor market share for the quarter.
