Riva Group Plc says it will terminate its operations in Switzerland and sell off all its assets there after piling up losses of 1m pounds on its operations. Half of the 64 staff will lose their jobs and the other half, mainly in software and support, will be relocated. High national taxes and overheads were cited as the major reason for the failure. Chairman, Peter Giles, said that geographical reasons also played a part: the mountainous terrain meant that they had to locate highly paid engineers in several places as travel between them was not easy. The company still has Swiss ambitions and Giles said that the group was currently negotiating alliances with two companies – one of which is Siemens Nixdorf, one of its biggest rivals, and another privately owned company. Giles stressed that mid-term net profits were up despite the losses the company had suffered in Switzerland, which it estimated will be just over 1m pounds. He also blamed the troubles in Switzerland for the sudden drop in the company’s share price. Shares crashed 38% to 38 pence on the announcement.
