Commenting on more ghastly figures (see opposite) Philips Electronics NV chairman Jan Timmer said the Dutch multinational’s performance in 1992’s fourth quarter, which is normally the strongest of the year as people buy electronic toys for Christmas, was very disappointing, and that no let-up in price erosion had so far been seen for 1993. The $489m loss for 1992 means that another 10,000 to 15,000 more jobs are going to have to go at the company as part of the continuing restructuring plan – its payroll actually rose to 252,000 at the end of 1992 from 240,000 in 1991. The new charge is for reshaping Philips’ consumer electronics and components businesses and for its German associate Grundig in which it has a 31.6% stake. That raised some eyebrows, but Philips disclosed last month that under a 1984 agreement with the company it would fund any losses that Max Grundig’s creation made. Philips blamed the unprecedented slump in the consumer electronics market that hit business hard in 1992 and dragged down its related components business for the latest round of woe, adding that The extent of improvement is dependent upon two major factors, price developements in the markets for consumer electronics and components and the speed of implementation of the restructuring programmes. It sees no recovery in the world economy in 1993 and expects sales in real terms to be flat. Prospects are relatively better in the US but our main markets in Europe show no signs of improvement, the company said. It looks for the new round of retrenchments to have a positive effect on 1993 profits, but can’t forecast them.
